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t UNITED STATES OP ABIERICA. f 



FAITH, 



DRAWN 



FROM THE WORD OF GOD. 



BY 



REV. CHARLES ADAM SMITH, A. 



ALBANY: 
E. H. PEASE ^ CO. 
M. }V, DODD^ NEW vpRK ^ /> 




\\ 









Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1850, 

BY CHARLES A. SMITH, 

In the Clerk's Office, for the Southern District 

of New York. 



The Library 
OF Congress 



WASHINGTON 



BTEREOTYPER AND PRINTER, 
ALBANT. 



> i^ .<>n\. \\ ; 



CONTENTS. 

The Faith of Abel, - - - 5 
The Faith of Enoch, - - - 43 
The Faith of Noah, ... 79 
The Faith of Abraham, - - 105 

Patterns for us, - - - - 139 



«fit /nif[r nf Ibtl. 



THE FAITH OF ABEL. 



" By faith, Abel offered unto God a more ex- 
cellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtamed 
witness that he was righteous, God testifying of 
his gifts." Hebrews, xi, 4. 




■{HE faith of all believers 
is the same in its ob- 
jects and elements. In 
all cases, it is trust in God, 
arising from an evangelical 
view of His perfections and 
purposes, and embraces the convic- 
tion of sin and the hope of forgiveness through 
Christ, the great sacrifice for sin, and the 
only mediator between God and man. In 
all cases it is " the substance of things 
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen;'^ 
demonstration amounting to certainty, of the 



8 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

truth of all that God has revealed and pro- 
mised. In all cases it draws its motives 
from eternal things, and makes the things of 
this life subservient to these. It is always 
a principle that purifies the heart and re- 
forms the conduct, and brings every feeling 
and passion of the soul to the obedience of 
Christ. It prepares all who are sanctified 
by it, for duty. It imparts to all who pos- 
sess it, strength in the hour of trial and con- 
flict. There is but one faith, as there is but 
one Lord, and that centres in Christ, and 
radiates from him, through all the disposi- 
tions of the soul and through all the actions 
of the life. 

But as the circumstances of every believer 
differ in some respects from those of every 
other, and as one day's experience in the 
case of the same individual, varies from that 
of another; so are the manifestations of 
faith, continually presented in some new 
light. The duties and temptations of to-day 



THE FAITH OF ABEL, 9 

may not be like those of yesterday. The 
duties of the child dijffer from those of the 
parent; of the governed^ from those who 
govern. One man may be tempted by ad- 
versity, and another by prosperity to forget 
God. So every age of the church has its 
own experience, giving to the general faith 
of every era a somewhat peculiar and new 
development. Thus the faith of the martyrs 
in the primitive age of Christianity, dis- 
played itself chiefly in meek endurance; 
that of the Reformers, in bold resistance; 
that of the present age, mainly in eiforts to 
bring together the separate members of the 
body of Christ, and concentrate the power 
of the whole body in opposing formalism 
and infidelity, and in pushing on the con- 
quests of the Son of God throughout the 
whole Earth. 

Whilst, therefore, it is true that the mani- 
festations of Christian faith are almost end- 
less in variety; while it is true that every 



10 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

man's experience, differing in some respects 
from the experience of every other man, 
will impart to the exhibitions of his faith, 
an aspect somewhat peculiar; it is also true, 
that there is enough of similarity in the ex- 
perience of all believers, to make the prac- 
tical display of every one's faith, a matter 
of interest to every other. For while our 
temptations and spiritual conflicts, our doubts, 
our fears, and our duties may vary in out- 
ward form, they agree in their general 
character. " The world, the flesh, and the 
devil," are the enemies with whom all have 
to wrestle, and therefore the victory which 
every believer's faith gains over these ene- 
mies, whatever be the manner of their as- 
sault, must afford both instruction and en- 
couragement to every other member of the 
household of faith. The experience of Abel, 
and Enoch, and Noah, and Abraham, and 
Moses was extraordinary. The history of 
each of these servants of God forms an 



THE FAITH OF ABEL. 11 

epoch by itself; connected as they were with 
great events, and called to be prominent ac- 
tors in some of the most remarkable move- 
ments of Jehovah that have ever occurred 
in the world, we find that they differed in 
the outward manifestations of their faith, 
from each other, and from all who have 
since walked in the same path of self denial. 
And yet their faith was the same, both in 
its objects and elements. They were actu- 
ated by the very same principle, in all that 
they did and in all that they endured, which 
enables every believer, even the most ob- 
scure, to repent, and love, and trust, and 
suffer, and obey, according to the will of 
God; so that, although far removed from 
ourselves in the events with which they were 
associated, and in the extraordinary displays 
of faith which these events demanded, we 
may nevertheless learn profitable lessons 
from their examples. 

In the passage that stands at the head of 



12 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

this illustration, the faith of Abel is con- 
trasted with the unbelief of Cain; and we 
are led, 

I. To inquire, in what respects their of- 
ferings differed; what were the characteris- 
tics of the faith of the one, and what were 
the characteristics of the unbelief of the 
other? The record contained in Genesis iv, 
3, 4, throws light upon this question. 
There we read that " in process of time 
Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, an 
offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also 
brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of 
the fat thereof. And the Lord had re- 
spect unto Abel, and to his offering; but 
unto Cain and to his offering he had not re- 
spect.'' 

Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock 
and of the fat thereof. This, we think, 
describes with suflScient clearness, the nature 
of his faith. We have reason to suppose, 
that God made to Adam and his immediate 



THE FAITH OF ABEL. 13 

descendants, a plain discovery of the plan of 
redemption through the death of his Son, 
and that he appointed the shedding of 
blood as the prophetic type of that etent. 
When the promise was given, that the seed 
of the woman should bruise the serpent's 
head, there must have been connected with 
that promise, an intimation sufficiently clear 
of the nature of the deliverance that was to 
be accomplished. Man was probably told 
at the beginning, so as to be able to imder* 
stand, that without the shedding of bloody 
there could be no remission of sin. 

Afterwards, we find Noah building an 
altar unto the Lord, and offering thereon 
sacrifices of every clean beast, and of every 
clean fowl. And again we find Abraham 
prepared to sacrifice his own son at the 
command of God, and when that command 
was revoked, a substitute was provided by 
an arrangement of God himself, and this 
was sacrificed instead. The inference from 
2 



14 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

all this, and much more that might be said 
in connection with this subject, is, that our 
first parents were required to sacrifice ani« 
mals, and offer them to the Lord. This 
was to be the act of their faith in the promised 
Messiah. Abel had that faith, and there- 
fore in obedience to the divine requirement, 
and in reliance upon that plan of salvation, 
which was indicated and prefigured in the 
shedding of blood, he brought of the firstlings 
of his flock. 

Cain brought of the fruit of the ground 
as an offering of acknowledgment to the 
Lord. Probably this also w^as expressly 
commanded, for we find both the sin offer- 
ing and the offering of the first fruits, in the 
worship of the Jews. The latter was the 
confession of God's universal providenca 
But in the Jewish w^orship, even when the 
first fruits were presented to the Lord, a 
lamb was to be offered at the same time; 
and this seemed to imply that even the pro- 



THE FAITH OF ABEL. 15 

vidential care of God was to be ascribed to 
the appointment of a Saviour. It indicated 
that the entire government of the world, 
had been placed in the hands of Christ. It 
was intended to guard against any diversion 
of the mind from God's plan of reconcilia- 
tion. And had the Jewish priest waived 
the sheaf of barley before the Lord, without 
presenting on that same day a lamb for a 
burnt offering, it would have been a virtual 
rejection of the atonement. 

This will enable us to understand in what 
respect the sacrifice of Abel was more ex- 
cellent, or, as it may be rendered, more 
complete, than that of Cain. He brought, it 
is commonly believed, both of the fruits of 
the ground and the firstlings of his flock; 
or if he brought only the latter, he acknow- 
ledged thereby that the entire government 
of the world was thenceforth to be conducted 
on mediatorial principles; he confessed his 
own sins, and admitted the necessity of the 



16 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

shedding of blood, to their remission. He 
saw and deprecated his exposure to divine 
wrath, and looked for deliverance to that 
^^ seed of the woman'' who was to bruise the 
serpent's head. 

Cain, on the other hand, recognized the 
creative energy, and providential over- 
sight of God, and human obligation arising 
therefrom; but whilst his offering w^as an 
acknowledgment of the divine agency in 
the productiveness of the Earth, it appears 
to have been a denial of man's inability to 
justify himself. The shedding of blood for 
the remission of sin, appears to have been, 
to his mind, an absurdity unworthy of be- 
lief. 

1. Our first inference from this portion 
of our subject is, that those who believe, 
must indicate their faith in the way which 
God has appointed. We have spoken of the 
sacrifice which Abel offered to the Lord, as 
the only proper, and the indispensable ex- 



THE FAITH OF ABEL, 17 

pression of his faith. By this he commemo- 
rated the sacrifice that was to he offered on 
the cross. And what we desire to enforce 
here is, the duty that still rests upon all, to 
commemorate the sacrifice that has been of- 
fered on the cross. When our Lord abolished 
the Mosaic ritual, as having answered its 
end, he appointed two sacraments, w^iich 
were to be observed as the outward expres- 
sion of the believer's faith, throughout all 
time. These were Baptism and the Lord's 
Supper; the one as the seal of God's coven- 
ant with his people, and the emblem of their 
sanctification; and the other, as a public 
acknowledgment of the believer's trust in 
the death of Christ, for the pardon of his 
sins. The cup of blessing in the Lord's 
Supper, is the communion of the blood of 
Christ; the bread which we break, is the 
communion of the body of Christ. It is the 
public acknowledgment of those obligations 
under which the sacrificial death of Christ 
2* 



18 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

has placed us. It is a recognition of those 
privileges and hopes, which that event has 
secured. We are to remember here, that the 
Lord's supper is a divine appointment; that 
it bears historical reference to the same 
event, v^^hich was prophetically set forth in 
the offering of Abel; so that our obligation 
to observe it must be as binding and posi- 
tive, as was the obligation of the Jew to oifer 
burnt sacrifices to God; and where evan- 
gelical faith exists, it must necessarily, we 
think, find its outward expression in this 
form. I speak to those who have never 
made a public profession of religion, and 
who are flattering themselves that they may 
believe without it, and that this profession 
is not necessary to their salvation. Must 
not the public profession of Christ be the 
first act which faith desires to perform? 

Is it possible to love the Saviour and trust 
in him, and to have the full tide of his 
grace and power flowing in upon the soul. 



THE FAITH OF AEEL. 19 

and yet coldly abstain from the public ac- 
knowledgment of his atoning death and 
effectual mediation? Is there not cause to 
fear, that all those pleas which many urge 
as a reason for their refusal, thus to do 
public homage to Christ, are the pleas of 
unbelief; that while they are prepared to 
confess the universal providence of God, 
they are not prepared to embrace the scheme 
of redemption, and have never exercised an 
humble, trusting reliance upon the blood 
that was shed for sin. We do not say, that 
it is impossible for an individual to possess 
a justifying faith, and yet refrain for months, 
perhaps for years, from the public acknow- 
ledgment of his indebtedness to Christ; but 
we do say that his faith, if it is real, lacks 
a very important evidence, and that he can 
not be fully satisfied of its genuineness until 
he has given it expression, in the form of 
which we are now^ speaking. 
^ The same consideration should press upon 



20 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

the minds of those who have professed Christ 
and his gospel before men, but who have 
neglected his ordinances. When members 
of the church absent themselves from the 
table of the Lord, the question arises, where 
is their faith? Have they ceased to be sin- 
ners, or have they forgotten that they always 
stand in equal heed of the Saviour's media- 
tion? Such neglect should awaken thought- 
fulness and serious concern, and it is a ques- 
tion v/hich every one who is guilty of it, 
ought to answer in the light of his ovrn 
conscience and the word of God; whether a 
neglect like this, does not render nugatory 
all the prayers, and all the services with 
which he attempts to approach his Maker. 
It is impossible to conceive how that prayer 
can reach Heaven, which does not proceed 
from a soul that is ever ready to make public 
confession of its sins, and public acknow- 
ledgment of the entire reliance of all its 
hopes upon Christ. 



THE FAITH OF ABEL. 21 

2. We have also in this portion of our 
subject, the revelation of an important prin- 
ciple, and that is, all our offerings to God 
must recognize the atonement, or be rejected. 
This, as has been shown, was probably the 
reason why the Lord had not respect unto 
the offering of Cain. He had faith, but it 
was not evangelical faith. He was a be- 
liever in creation and providence, but not in 
redemption. He was willing to acknow- 
ledge God as a Sovereign, but not as a 
Saviour. 

As then, so now, God will accept no 
worship that is not presented through Christ 
as the mediator of the new covenant. The 
doctrine of the Bible, is, that the whole 
government of the world is conducted on 
principles of mercy, as they have been dis- 
played on Calvary. It is a question whether 
the world would now exist, had not God 
conceived and resolved to carry out the plan 
of establishing upon it, the kingdom of his 



22 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

grace; and if he sends his rain on the just 
and on the unjust, and causes his Sun to 
shine on the evil and the good, and if the 
fields yield their increase, we are to ascribe 
the beneficent operation of the laws of na- 
ture to the fact, that God in Christ is carry- 
ing on the plan of reconciliation. His long 
suffering and kindness, all his providential 
bounties, as well as the direct agency of 
the Spirit, are designed to bring the soul 
in humility, and repentance, and faith, to 
the cross. Now, men may attempt to wor- 
ship God as a sovereign — they may acknow- 
ledge his power, and his wisdom, and his 
providential goodness, and they may pretend 
to worship him as the God of nature; all 
such acknowledgements v/ill be vain. " No 
man cometh unto the Father," says Jesus, 
" but by m.e.'' " I am the way, and the 
truth, and the life.'' Vain indeed will be 
the efforts of those who attempt to gain the 
favor of God, in some other way than by an 



THE FAITH OF ABEL. 23 

humble trust in the Redeemer of the world; 
who perhaps bring their morality to God 
and ask him to accept of that, or, in some 
other form, present a Christless offering. 
Morality is demanded, but it must be the 
tribute of a heart that has been washed in 
the blood of Jesus, and is grateful for his 
love. The sacrifice of a broken and a con- 
trite spirit is demanded, and this is to be 
presented on the ground of Christ's purchase. 
The gold and the silver are demanded, and 
these gifts are to be offered to God as an 
acknowledgment of what Christ has done. 
If we contribute even towards the spread 
of the Gospel ever so liberally, merely for 
the purpose of distributing its temporal ad- 
vantages, leaving Christ and the blessings 
of his salvation out of our estimate, God 
will frown upon the offering, although he 
may employ the means that have been fur- 
nished for the advancement of his own 



24 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

Without the recognition of Christ as the 
Redeemer of the world, " Lebanon is not 
sufficient to burn, nor are the beasts thereof 
sufficient for a burnt offering." What ren- 
ders the gold and the incense of Sheba 
worthy of honorable mention in prophecy 
is, that they shall be consecrated to Christ. 
The motive of every thing that is done for 
God, to be well pleasing to him, must be 
drawn from the Cross — -the glory must cen- 
ter there. Our prayers must be offered to 
God through Christ. Our repentance must 
have reference to that forgiveness which he 
has purchased Our benevolence must aim 
at the erection of the kingdom of Christ, 
among all nations and in every heart. A 
Christless prayer and a Christless repent- 
ance, if that were possible, and every gift 
which is not presented with reference to the 
honor of the Son of God, will be counted 
as nothing, and altogether vanity. 

II. The next feature mentioned in the 



THE FAITH OF ABEL. 25 

faith of Abel is, that by it he obtained vnU 
ness that he was righteous. God testified to 
him, that his oflTerings were accepted. What 
was the nature of this testimony, we are left 
to conjecture. The probability is, that fire 
was sent down from Heaven to consume the 
sacrifice. For this token of divine accept- 
ance was given to Aaron immediately after 
his consecration to the priestly oflBce; "there 
came a fire out from before the Lord, and 
consumed upon the altar the burnt offer- 
ing." This signified the turning away of 
God's WTath, which is described as a con- 
suming fire, from the sinner to the sacrifice. 
So at the dedication of the temple,"when 
Solomon had made an end of praying, the 
fire came down from Heaven, and consumed 
the burnt offerings and the sacrifices; and 
the glory of the Lord filled the house." (2 
Chron. vii, L) And when Elijah undertook 
to prove the absurdity of the worship of 
Baal, it was agreed that the God who 
3 



26 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

" answered by fire/' was to be acknow- 
ledged as the true God. But whatever was 
the nature of the testimony in the case be- 
fore us, it was conclusive; Abel obtained 
witness that he was righteous. 

And our remark here is, that true faith is 
always accompanied by the testimony of 
divine approbation. It belongs to it, just as 
light belongs to the Sun. The believer 
hath the witness in himself, and that wit- 
ness is the work of the Lord in his own 
soul. 

The meaning of the passage before us, 
hinges on the word '' righteous, ^^ If we 
understand in what sense this w^as true of 
Abel, and in what sense it is true of all be- 
lievers, we shall also understand how the 
approving testimony of God is obtained. 
The word does not signify that Abel pos- 
sessed by nature a character more holy than 
that of his brother. Nor did he lay claim 
to any superiority in this respect, for the 



THE FAITH OF ABEL. 27 

very offering which he presented, was a 
confession of his sinfulness. 

We are therefore to understand the word 
righteous here in the evangelical sense. 
Abel obtained witness that he was justified, 
purified, and accepted. In this sense, the 
term applies equally to all believers. They 
have the righteousness of faith — ^justifying 
righteousness through the death of Christ, 
obtained by faith in his atonement — and 
personal holiness through the operation of 
the word and spirit of Christ. Thus w^hen 
Paul is speaking of justification by faith, he 
says: ^'Abraham believed God, and it was 
accounted unto him for righteousness." And 
again he refers to the testimony of David, 
" Blessed are they whose iniquities are for- 
given and whose sins are covered. Blessed 
is the man to whom the Lord will not im- 
pute sin." This phraseology is sufficiently 
plain. 

How then may the believer know that he 



28 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

is justified by faith in the Son of God? On 
what does that evidence rest, which enables 
him to regard it as a matter settled beyond 
all doubt, that the price of his redemption 
has been paid and accepted, and that he has 
now as clear and safe a title to Heaven, as 
if sin had never blighted his prospects, and 
he had always obeyed the divine law? 

This evidence depends, first, upon the 
veracity of God, combined with his infinite 
wisdom. God has promised that whosoever 
believeth on his Son, shall have eternal life. 
And shall he not perform? Surely he will, 
unless he has been deceived in regard to the 
workings of his own plan; unless he has 
discovered some defect in its adaptation to 
the great ends of his moral government. 
But this can not be, because his wisdom has 
traced the scheme of human redemption in 
all its bearings. He knew, before it was 
adopted in the counsels of eternity, that it 
would carry out the purposes of his moral 



THE FAITH OF ABEL. 29 

administration in the world, just as com- 
pletely, as if mankind had been left without 
a remedy, to suffer the consequences of their 
guilt. 

But again^ the believer knows that he is 
justified and accepted, because the Holy 
Spirit has taken up its abode in his heart. 
Sin has been dethroned, and the work of his 
moral purification is continually going on. 
The fire has come down from Heaven to con- 
sume every unholy passion and every lust. 
The Spirit, by its sanctifying presence in the 
soul, is bearing witness with his spirit, that 
he is a child of God, and if a child, then 
an heir, an heir of God and a joint heir 
with Christ. He has received the spirit of 
adoption, and must therefore be entitled to 
all the rights and privileges of adoption. 
This is a kind of evidence by which he can 
not be deceived. 

We sometimes hear those who profess to 
believe, say that they have no assurance of 



30 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

the divine favor and acceptance. But the 
question arises, wliether justifying faith is 
ever separated from that assurance? If the 
faith that justifies, also purifies the sinner, 
is it possible that it should exist without a 
w^itness? Is the change from death to life, 
from sin to holiness, from the love of the 
world to the love of God, so imperceptible 
as to leave no impression on the believer's 
mind, no persuasion amounting to assur- 
ance, that he is a joint heir wuth Christ? 
Has lust been consumed, and passion re- 
strained, and has the soul, contrary to its 
own depraved nature, been filled with breath- 
ings after holiness; and are all its powers, 
thus brought into a new channel by the con- 
verting energy of the Divine Spirit, dili- 
gently pushing on towards the attainment 
of still higher degrees of conformity with 
the divine image? Surely, a process so won- 
derful; an alteration of purpose, and of 
every principle of conduct, so great as to 



THE FAITH OF ABEL. 31 

deserve the name of a new creation, must 
be a matter of consciousness to the indi- 
vidual in whom the mighty change is 

WTOUght. 

Then there are all the antecedent exer- 
cises of the mind — the thoughts turning to 
God — the conviction of inherited depravity 
and of actual sinfulness — the soul pressing 
its way with its burden to the cross ; surely, 
if God has conducted the sinner through all 
this, and has fixed his wandering and a- 
lienated affections upon himself, he has with- 
out doubt obtained a witness that he pos- 
^sses the righteousness of faith. If God 
has made him personally holy, he may rest 
assured that the law's demands have been 
cancelled — that its curse has been turned 
away. For it is a conclusion to which we 
are inevitably brought by all our conceptions 
of the divine benevolence, independent of 
the express declarations of scripture on this 
point, that God would not prepare the soul 



32 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

for Heaven and then close the entrance — 
that if sin has been robbed of its dominion, 
its victim is saved. 

Now we are aware that when this evi- 
dence of the believing sinner's justification 
is sufficiently clear to satisfy other minds, 
there may be in his own mind occasional 
fears, like the clouds that sometimes inter- 
pose between the Earth and the Sun; but 
there must be at the same time a settled and 
prevailing assurance, like the light of the 
Sun, which, though obscured partially by 
intervening and overshadowing clouds, can 
not be extinguished, but is still distinctly 
seen. We are aware that when the believer 
looks at the dark side of his owm character 
and experience; when he thinks of his un- 
faithfulness in the service of Christ, and of 
the corruption which still adheres to him; 
when he remembers the defects of his zeal, 
and the coldness of his prayers, and the im- 
perfection that clings to all his services; he 



THE FAITH OF ABEL. 33 

feels as Paul felt when taking a similar re- 
view, and his soul cries out: " wretched 
man that I am.'' With David, the believer 
is often troubled and bowed down greatly 
on account of sin, and goes mourning all 
the day long. Such emotions, such clouds 
and darkness, are perfectly consistent with 
the loftiest grade of piety attainable on 
Earth; for the more holy the soul becomes, 
the more sensitive will it be in regard to 
the corruption that still remains within it. 
But these agitations of the mind — these 
storms and tempests of distrust, which some- 
times sweep over the soul of the believer, 
are followed by the calm and the sunshine 
of sweet assurance, when he remembers 
what God has wrought — when he compares 
himself as he is, striving after heavenly 
honors and resolutely wrestling with sin, 
with himself as he was, the willing captive 
of sin, paying voluntary homage to the 
world and the fiesh — and when besides this 



34 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

he thinks of the perfect righteousness of 
Christ. One look at the cross speaks peace 
to his troubled spirit; and with the eye of 
his faith fixed upon the perfect sacrifice that 
was there offered, he knows that if God 
spared not his own Son, he will also with 
him freely give all things to those who be- 
lieve on his name. 

We have been speaking all along of those 
who are eminently, or at least unquestion- 
ably, pious; of those who have no reason to 
doubt the reality of their faith. There are 
different degrees of assurance, as there are 
different degrees of holiness; nor is the full 
assurance of faith given to that piety which 
barely exists, or to that which is stationary. 
Progression in holiness is indeed an im- 
portant witness, and we may perhaps safely 
add, an essential w^itness in favor of the 
believer's justification. Where there is no 
progress, there is room for doubt; and w^here 
there is a low state of piety, which can 



I 

THE FAITH OF ABEL. 35 

hardly be distinguished from the worldliness 
of the unrenewed, there is room for doubt. 
If you have not the v/itness of the Spirit, 
that demonstration which inspires the con- 
fident belief of having obtained the favor 
of God, and the pardon of sin and com- 
plete justification through the righteousness 
of Christ, then perhaps it is because you have 
not the Spirit itself. The Spirit can not 
bear witness to the soul in which it does not 
reside. And your having no testimony of 
acceptance, may be owing to the fact of 
your not having complied with the terms 
of acceptance. Or perhaps your piety is 
just at the point of extinguishment. It may 
be flickering now, and ready to expire, and 
in its last struggles for existence; there is 
no wonder then that you look in vain for the 
testimony that you are a child of God and 
an heir of his kingdom. 

In all cases of decided piety, where the 
practical exercises of a living faith are 



36 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

clearly exhibited, we think, we may safely 
say, that every believer obtains a witness 
that he is righteous. Wherever the work 
of regeneration is plainly accomplished, and 
the work of sanctification is plainly going 
on, there is clear testimony of the divine 
favor and acceptance. This is that fire 
which comes down from Heaven; and neither 
did Abel receive a more explicit testimony 
from on high that God was pleased with his 
offering— nor Aaron of the validity of his 
consecration to the priestly office — nor the 
children of Israel in the time of Elijah, that 
the God whose worship they had abandoned 
was the only true God — than is given to 
every believer when the Spirit descends 
upon his soul, and consumes wuthin it all 
those tendencies which separate it from 
God. 

It is an interesting thought, that the Holy 
Spirit and its office are likened to fire and 
its action. When the Spirit descended upon 



THE FAITH OF ABEL. 37 

the apostles, it came in the form of '^ cloven 
tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each 
of them.'' The forerunner of Christ testi- 
fied of him: " He shall baptize you with the 
Holy Ghost and with fire/' or, as with fire. 
When fire miraculously provided, consumed 
the sacrifices, it w^as therefore emblematic 
of the descent of the Spirit upon the hearts 
of believers. To this we are to look as the 
testimony which God now gives his children, 
of his favor and love. When the Holy Spirit 
comes down, and kindles the love of God in 
the soul of the believer, then, and in this 
manner does God bear witness that his sins 
are forgiven, and that his offering of a con- 
trite heart is accepted. 

Two practical thoughts remain to be con- 
sidered. 

1. The example of Abel, teaches us to 
look w^ell for the witness. If we have of- 
fered our hearts to God, he has sent down 
fire from Heaven, not to consume us, but to 
4 



38 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

purify these hearts, and the process must be 
even now going on. Be not deceived. Rest 
not your hopes upon any other faith than 
that which purifies the heart, and works by 
love. A faith that has not this power; a 
faith that comes short of this demonstration, 
must administer a false hope, if any, to the 
souL 

Seek the witness, if you have it not; 
endeavor to obtain the fCiU assurance that 
you have made your peace with God, through 
Jesus Christ. If you may have the assur- 
ance of faith^ why be satisfied without it? 
If there is a faith that brings to the mind 
of him who entertains it, the full persuasion 
of the divine favor and forgiveness, why not 
labor to secure that faith? Is the Spirit 
of the Lord now bearing witness with your 
spirit, that you are the children of God? 
Or, if you entertain doubts on this point, 
whence do they arivse? We know that some 
appear to be in darkness all their days; and 



THE FAITH OF ABEL. 39 

we know too that the piety of some is not 
a growing piety — that it barely lives, if it 
lives at all — and where these two circum- 
stances meet in the same individual, we 
may regard them as cause and effect. A 
dull sluggish piety can not be associated 
with joy unspeakable, and a lively hope. 
Growth in grace, is necessary to the well 
established assurance of salvation. 

2. The example of Abel encourages us 
to trust the great Propitiation, and warns us 
against trusting any thing else. Every hope 
that rests not there, is without a solid found- 
ation. All human substitutes will be re- 
jected. 

In a word, we are directed to the blood 
of sprinkling, which speaketh better things 
than that of Abel. The blood of Abel 
called from the ground for vengeance — the 
blood of Christ pleads that vengeance may 
be stayed. Without Christ, the universe is 
to the sinner a blank, or rather a hell, re- 



40 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

plete with the elements of wrath. Without 
him, God is nothing to the sinner but a con- 
suming fire. If you would be saved, you 
must not only admire God as a Sovereign, 
but you must repent before him as a Father 
ready to forgive; you must believe in him as 
a Saviour; you must submit to him as a Sancti- 
fier; you must be justified on the terms of the 
gospel. It is the heart which God demands, 
and this must be given to Christ. Offer 
this sacrifice, and you will have the testi- 
mony that you are righteous. Withhold the 
heart from Christ, and deny your obligation, 
and refuse your allegiance to him, and every 
other acknowledgement will be utterly vain. 
For he that believeth not the Son shall not 
see life, but the wrath of God abideth on 
him. You may come with tears, without 
this acknowledgement, but they will not 
avail. The language of the justified sinner is: 

' ' In my hand no price I bring, 
Simply to thy cross I cling." 



THE FifelTH OF ABEL. 41 

Let the sinner thus come — let him bring 
to God the sacrifice of a broken and a con- 
trite heart, and lay it down at the cross, and 
God will testify of his gift, and he will 
have the witness that he is righteous. He 
will have the indwelling witness of a trust- 
ing, purifying faith, moulding his character 
and fitting him for Heaven. 



€\i M\\ rif (Bm^ 



THE FAITH OF ENOCH. 



" By faith, Enoch was translated, that he should 
not see death ; and was not found because God 
had translated him ; for before his translation, he 
had this testimony, that he pleased God. But 
without faith, it is impossible to please hrm, for 
he that cometh to God, must believe that he is, 
and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently 
seek him." Hebrews, xi, 5, 6. 

iLTHOUGH the individual whose 

faith is described in the passage 

which stands at the head of this 

illustration, occupies a conspicuous 

place in the world's history, yet the 

account which the scripture gives 

of him is very brief. The genealogical 

record in Genesis informs us that he was 

the seventh from Adam, and the great grand- 




46 ILLUSTRA.TIONS OF FAITH. 

father of Noah; and from Jude we learn 
that he was a prophet, and foretold the 
coming of the Lord, " with ten thousand 
of his saints," to convince the wicked of 
their ungodliness, and to execute judgment 
upon all who should despise his warning 
voice. From this we gather, that on ac- 
count of the exceeding and growing iniquity 
of mankind, at that period, God appointed 
Enoch a preacher of righteousness, to ad- 
monish that sinful generation, and leave no 
excuse for their impiety. But all the threat- 
enings he was commanded to deliver, were 
disregarded, and the waves of iniquity 
rolled on, and gathered strength^ until in the 
days of Noah, the suspended judgment was 
suffered to descend, and all the scoffers and 
revilers of God were swept from the Earth. 
But the most remarkable circumstance 
connected with the history of Enoch, is, 
that when he was three hundred and sixty- 
five years old, he was taken from the world 



THE FAITH OF ENOCH. 47 

in such a way as not to see death* From 
the account given in Genesis, it is not easy 
to determine the mode of his departure; for 
it is there related simply, that, "Enoch 
walked with God, and he was not; for God 
took him.'^ This may be said of every good 
man who leaves the world in the ordinary 
manneri Some of the Rabbins, indeed^ con*- 
tended for this interpretation. But the Ian* 
guage of Paul is plain, and removes every 
doubt* He informs us, that the translation 
of Enoch was extraordinary; that God^ by 
a miraculous interposition of his almighty 
power^ removed him from Earth to Heaven* 
This is one of the occurrences on which, 
as on all the miracles of the Bible, skep* 
ticism rests an objection* The rejecter of 
revelation pretends to consider this event an 
impossibility, because it varies from the 
general experience of mankind. But an 
objection based upon such a reason as this, 
is evidently fallacious, because it takes for 



48 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

granted, that no circumstances could possibly 
occur, which would induce God to depart 
from his ordinary method of procedure; or 
else it limits his power to the channel in 
which his providence usually flows. But 
this is the very thing to be proved before a 
single miracle of the Bible can be touched. 
Admitting, what all who believe the exist- 
ence of God must admit, that his wisdom 
might see reasons for departing from the 
customary and familiar order of his provi- 
dential operations, and that his power is 
sufficient to accomplish all the purposes of 
his wisdom; admitting, in other words, the 
very first truth of natural religion, that there 
is a God, who is infinite in all his attributes, 
and that therefore nothing is impossible 
with him, it must also be admitted that he 
can and may perform other wonders beside 
those which are familiar to the eye of sense 
and the general experience of mankind. 
Neither is it necessary to find a reason 



THE FAITH OF ENOCH* 49 

why God should have acted in an extraor- 
dinary manner, in order to know that he has 
thus acted. It is enough to know that he is 
infinitely wise and good, and that all the 
displays of his power on the Earth have also 
been the displays of his infinite wisdom and 
goodness* It is enough to know that the 
Bible is a revelation from God — this is the 
ground of our belief in all the transactions 
it relates, whether w^e discern the reasons 
which led to them or not. But sometimes 
these reasons appear to lie so plainly on the 
surface that we may innocently surmise 
them, so long as our speculations are not 
derogatory to the divine perfections, and so 
long as they are in strict agreement with all 
the primary truths of revelation. 

In reference to the translation of Enoch, 
we may suppose that it was partly intended to 
teach mankind that they were immortal and 
accountable, and that there would be a day 
of retribution, when their eternal state would 



50 iLLUSlttATlONS Oi' FAITH. 

be determined according to the deeds don6 
in the body. 

So far as we can judge, iniquity made 
rapid strides after the fall, and the ungodly 
were probably encouraged at first in their evil 
ways, by the almost indefinite prolongation 
of human life. For centuries, death claimed 
no victim. It is true Abel had fallen by the 
hand of his brother. But this was an act 
of violence, which need not necessarily be re- 
peated, and the impression may have pre- 
vailed that if man did not fall by the hand 
of his fellow man, he would never see death. 
Thus it is possible that the declaration of 
Satan: " Ye shall not surely die," by which 
man was lured from the path of obedience, 
gained credit, and that iniquity became bold 
and reckless in proportion to the strength 
of this conviction. At length, however, 
Adam died. But the wicked of that gene- 
ration were startled from one capital error, 
only to stumble, in all probability, into 



THE FAITH OF ENOCH. 51 

another. It is but a single step from one 
absurdity of unbelief to a greater absurdity 
still. Those who doubted whether man 
would ever pay that part of the forfeit of 
his disobedience: " Dust thou art, and unto 
dust shalt thou return/' found it no hard 
matter, we may suppose, to believe that 
death was an everlasting sleep. It was only 
exchanging a groundless hope, which, in 
view of the threatening of God, and the sen- 
tence that followed the first act of disobedi- 
ence, should never have been entertained; 
for an equally groundless despair, w^hich the 
promise of God should have excluded from 
the mind. But if the false hope kindled the 
most unholy passions, the despair which 
followed only served to establish their do- 
minion. The result in both cases was the 
same. Those who were encouraged by the 
hope of immunity from death, to give loose 
reins to their unsanctified desires, were 
driven by despair to the same extremity of 



52 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

wickedness; and it needed only a slight 
change of words to express the determina- 
tion to which they were brought by these 
opposite feelings. Whilst the one feeling 
tempted them to say: " Let us eat and drink 
for we shall never die;" the other prompted 
the language of defiance: " Let us eat and 
drink, and live as we list, for to-morrow we 
die." 

It is well known how rapidly society de- 
generates, and how corrupt it becomes, if 
there prevails a disbelief of the immortality 
and future accountability of man. This we 
learn from the history of those nations and 
tribes among whom these doctrines are 
unknown, or very imperfectly understood. 
There must be a prevailing conviction that 
death is not an everlasting sleep, and that 
the present state of being is only the com- 
mencement of human existence, or there 
will not be even a tolerable condition of 
morals maintained in the world. There 



THE FAITH OF ENOCH. 53 

must be a prevailing conviction that beyond 
this life there is a scene of retribution, or 
the v^hole history of mankind will be but 
a repetition of wrongs inflicted and WTetch- 
edness endured; and there would follow one 
degree of moral corruption after another, 
until the whole race would be sunk as low as 
when, before the deluge, their iniquity called 
for their almost total extermination. From 
the testimony that Jude bears to the wicked- 
ness of mankind in the time of Enoch, we 
have every reason to suppose that rank in- 
fidelity reigned, and that human accounta- 
bility was lost sight of, — probably in the 
belief that death was annihilation, and that 
after death there would be no judgment. 
If such was the general opinion, the trans- 
action mentioned in the passage which 
precedes this illustration was well cal- 
culated to correct it; for it could not have 
been witnessed — as it may have been by 

multitudes for aught we know to the con- 
5* 



54 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

trary — without leaving the impression that 
man was immortal. We know not what 
influence the transaction may have had ^on 
that generation. On this point the word of 
God is silent. It may be that it had an 
important share in forming the piety of the 
descendants of the Patriarchs, and that of 
Noah among the rest. 

We turn from this to a more practical 
point, when we say that there is a plain an- 
alogy between the translation of Enoch, and 
that translation which every believer expe- 
riences, even in this world, when he is 
brought out of spiritual death into spiritual 
life. What is the meaning of that declara- 
tion of the Saviour: " He that believeth in 
me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; 
and whosoever liveth, and believeth in me, 
shall never die?" Here we have faith as 
the condition^ and preservation from death 
as the result. Is this preservation real, or 
is it figurative? Is it a mere shadow, or is 



THE FAITH OF ENOCH. 55 

it a substantial blessing? Just as real it is, 
and just as substantial a blessing, as was the 
translation of Enoch from this to another 
world; and of far greater value than that 
event would have been, had it consisted 
merely in the translation of the body, with- 
out embracing also the everlasting deliver- 
ance of the soul from the penalty of sin 
Of the believer, it may be truly said that he 
shall never die. What is death? It is the 
exclusion of the soul from happiness. It is 
the working of corruption within the soul; 
the fires of lust, and ambition, and avarice, 
tasking and consuming those energies which 
were made for the pure and noble employ- 
ments of Heaven. It is the disposition to sin 
and rebel against God, that forms a part of 
the soul itself, above which it can not rise, 
and over which it can obtain no mastery. 
" The sting of death is sin, and the strength 
of sin is the law." And when faith delivers 
the soul from the power of the one, and 



56 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

invests it with the capability of rendering 
acceptable obedience to the other, then is 
there a change produced equal to that which 
was witnessed when " by faith Enoch was 
translated, that he should not see death." If 
the one was a miracle, so is the other. If 
the one required an extraordinary interposi- 
tion, so does the other. 

What can be more extraordinary than 
those arrangements of infinite wisdom and 
love which demanded that he who was in 
the form of God, and who thought it not 
robbery to claim equality with God, should 
make himself of no reputation, and take 
upon him the form of a servant, and be 
made in the likeness of men; and being 
formed in fashion as a man, should humble 
himself still more, and become obedient unto 
death, even the death of the cross? (Phil, 
ii, 8). What can be more extraordinary 
than that he whose name is Wonderful 
Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting 



THE FAITH OF ENOCH. 57 

Father, and the Prince of Peace, should also 
be designated as a man of sorrows, upon 
whom the chastisement of our peace has 
been laid? What can be more extraordinary 
than the extremes of glory and suffering, of 
power and weakness, of divinity and hu- 
manity, that had to meet in him who under- 
took our redemption for us? Here, in the 
scheme of man's recovery from sin, is an 
intervention far transcending any physical 
wonder the world has ever seen. 

And we see not how any one can witness 
the energy of faith displayed in the life of 
the believer, and yet hesitate to credit all the 
miracles which the Bible relates. There is 
no miracle equal to that miracle of grace by 
which the sinner recovers his proper posi- 
tion in the great circle of duty and influence, 
and by which he is made fit for Heaven. 
The laws of nature may be arrested in their 
course— the Sun may be made to stand still, 
and the dead may be raised — but we see 



58 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

nothing in this more remarkable than that 
the whole tendency of the will and affections 
of the sinner should be changed, the current 
of human depravity arrested, and that pro- 
cess of moral corruption stayed, which, if 
suffered to go on, must bring upon the soul 
everlasting ruin. When the Redeemer re- 
buked the sea, and calmed the tempest, he 
performed not a greater wonder than when 
he said: " Be of good cheer, thy sins are 
forgiven thee/' 

Faith, we say, is as powerful in its 
operation now, as it was in the transla- 
tion of Enoch. It accomplishes miracles 
as great. It gives wings to the soul, and 
enables it to soar above the Earth and 
earthly things. It alters the settled and evil 
habits of the mind, and gives a right direc- 
tion and a lofty elevation to its thoughts. 
It conquers selfishness and creates benevo- 
lence. It allows no one, who is governed 
by it, to live for himself alone. It subdues 



THK FAITH OF J:n5CH. 59 

the fierce passions of our nature, and imparts 
the power of self Control. It brings peace 
and joy to the individual; and wherever 
its influence reaches, it brings peace and 
joy to the world. It dries up the dark 
fountains of human misery, and stays the 
fierce floods of licentiousness and crime, that 
have been sweeping so many ages over the 
Earth. The world owes all that is valuable 
in government^ all that is generous in social 
intercourse, and all that is pure in morals, 
to the religion of the Bible. All political 
and social changes that have been really and 
permanently beneficial, are to be traced to 
this source. These are the miracles which 
faith has performed in every age df the 
church, and which are witnessed now. The 
experience of the world is continually add- 
ing to the force of this testimony. All 
history is but an accumulation of evidence 
in favor of the celestial origin and divine 
authority of the word of God. 



60 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

To what new refuge of falsehood can 
infidelity now flee? Will it venture to deny 
that Christianity has ever made one true 
convert from sin to holiness? Will it ven- 
ture to deny that the religion of the cross 
has ever raised one soul above the dominion 
of a selfish indiiFerence to the welfare of 
others, and given it the expansion of a uni- 
versal and self-denying sympathy? Circum- 
scribed indeed must be the influence of any 
such attempt. Christianity needs no other 
monument than that which it is daily rearing 
by means of its own transforming energy. 
The church is the witness of its divinity, 
the living, speaking proof that it came down 
from the throne, and is invested with the 
authority of God. Every excellence of 
Christian character, every aspiration of 
Christian hope, every reliance of Christian 
faith, every performance of Christian acti- 
vity, and every result of Christian faithful- 
ness and zeal, is an argument which no 
sophistry can overturn. 



THE FAITH OF ENOCH. 61 

But let US look at some of the elements of 
this faith, as they were displayed in the 
example before us. 

We are told that before his translation, 
Enoch had this testimony, that he pleased 
God. And this is ascribed to his faith; for, 
the apostle adds, that without faith it is im- 
possible to please him. The language of 
MoseSj which means the same thing, is still 
more emphatic. He says: " Enoch walked 
with God." And this denotes the most per- 
fect agreement, the closest familiarity of 
intercourse. 

This then is one of the consequences of 
faith: it produces reconciliation. The con- 
troversy that exists between God and the 
sinner must be settled, or there can be no 
fellowship between them; for two can not 
walk together ^^ except they be agreed '* 
(Amos iii, 3). Faith establishes a confi- 
dence between God, as the sovereign, and 

man, as the subject of his government. The 
6 



62 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

two parties, who were before directlj^ at 
variance in their sentiments and dispositions, 
have now the same mind. 

And this reconciliation manifests itself in 
the constant communion of the soul with 
God. 

Prayer is an expression of faith; it is the 
very habit of the soul in which faith resides. 
If w^e consider the relations which the be- 
liever sustains, we shall find it impossible to 
separate these relations from the duty of 
which we are now speaking. So sure is this 
criterion, that if any professing Christian 
should find himself destitute of the spirit of 
prayer, he may safely conclude that he is 
destitute also of the spirit of faith. The 
believer is a child of God in the strictest 
sense, possessing the regard and affection of 
a child; but how can the child who loves 
and is beloved, stay away from his father's 
presence? The believer is in a world of 
temptation, his pathway is filled up with 



THE FAITH OF ENOCH. 63 

difficulties, and doubts and apprehensions 
necessarily beset him; how can he refuse to 
apply for light and strength to that Almighty 
friend who is both a counsellor and an ever 
present helper? The believer has the mind 
of Christ; and how fervent were his petitions 
on the mountain, in Gethsemane, and on the 
Cross. The believer knows that the world 
is to be converted in answer to prayer; there- 
fore his pity for that world, and his confi- 
dence in the revealed purpose, and in the 
power of God, must make him a frequent inter- 
cessor at his throne. Talk not of piety without 
prayer. There is no such thing. To be prayer- 
less is to be unbelieving. Let faith once enter 
the soul, and let the love of God, which goes 
along with it, once find its lodgment there, 
and prayer must become its habitual lan- 
guage. Hear David: "Have mercy upon 
me, God, according to thy loving kind- 
ness; according unto the multitude of thy 
tender mercies, blot out my transgressions." 



64 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

Have you never prayed thus? Then you 
must be an unbeliever, both in your own 
sinfulness and in the goodness and power of 
the Almighty. Hear one of the Prophets, 
as he looked upon the desolations of Zion, 
and yet believed that God had mercy in 
store for his people: "0 Lord revive thy 
work in the midst of the years, in the midst 
of the years make known; in wrath remem- 
ber mercy." Who can witness the church 
cold or oppressed; and with a faith that can 
scan her future glory and appreciate her 
future influence, and with a love capable of 
desiring both, can yet restrain the prayer 
that that glory may soon be revealed, and 
that the blessings of that influence may soon 
be experienced by the whole race of man- 
kind. 

The believer walks with God in his sanc- 
tuary. He loves to be there because God is 
there; and that is a remarkable inconsistency, 
when those who profess to be reconciled to 



THE FAITH OF ENOCH. 65 

God by faith, neglect any of those ordi- 
nances which he has appointed as the means 
of holding converse with himself. And may 
not then the genuineness of that man's piety 
be suspected, who is a neglecter of public w^or- 
ship, or who communes not with God at the 
table which Christ has furnished with the 
memorials of infinite condescension and love? 
Is it any breach of the great law of Christian 
charity to look with mistrust upon that faith 
which contents itself with an occasional 
visit to the house of prayer, and w^hich does 
not diligently improve all the means of 
grace as the means of its own invigoration? 
The walk of the believer wuth his God, is a 
visible walk. True, w^e can not see the 
breathings of the soul after larger measures 
of holiness; we can not witness those secret 
communings, of which no one is conscious 
but God and the soul itself We admit that 
very much of the believer's intercourse with 

Heaven comes not before the eye of the 
6* 



66 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

world; and we admit too, that ordinances 
may be observed whilst there is no fellow- 
ship of the soul with the Father and with 
his Son. But with all these admissions, it is 
still true, that the love of the sanctuary and 
its ordinances is an indispensable indication 
of faith. God himself has made this a test. 
He has commanded us to reverence his sanc- 
tuary. And when the Jews disobeyed this 
command — when they neglected the house 
and the worship and the ordinances of God, 
the channel of intercourse between them 
and Heaven was closed. That was the 
channel of intercourse. In his house, God 
promised to meet them; and when they 
neglected this, they neglected the principal 
medium of communion with the heavenly 
world. Then it was that the necessity arose 
of God's judgment against them. Then it 
was that he withdrew the visible signs of 
his presence from their midst. Go to the 
individual who is a neglecter of the sane- 



THE FAITH OF ENOCH. 67 

tuary and the ordinances of religion, and 
ask him whether he is conscious of walking 
with God; ask him whether he enjoys any 
of the comfort of* that fellowship; and if he 
is honest, he will tell you, no. But you 
need not ask him. The sad truth of his 
alienation is written upon his abandonment 
of the place and the means of intercourse 
with Heaven. And how can he be conscious 
of walking with God, when it needs not his 
own confession to make it evident that he is 
walking w^ith the world? How can he enjoy 
any of the comfort of fellowship with God, 
when there is not the fellowship itself? 

This reconciliation which faith produces, 
is also displayed in the believer's obedience 
to the moral law of God. This law he un- 
derstands as Christ has explained it. This 
law he endeavors to practice as Christ, in 
his own blameless life, has illustrated its 
precepts. Does he know that God is love, 
and that the Son of God came to execute 



68 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

the purposes of divine compassion in the 
redemption of the lost? The same moral ele- 
ment glows in his breast, and the earnest 
desires of his benevolence break forth in 
active efforts to do good, thus fulfilling the 
command: " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as 
thyself." Does he know that God is holy? 
He endeavors to remove not only his actions, 
but his very thoughts as far as possible from 
the contaminations of sin. The controversy 
which he now has is with himself. The 
struggle to which he devotes all his powers 
and all his watchfulness, is with the yet un- 
conquered sinfulness of his own nature. 
Does he know that God is true and just? 
The principles of truth and justice pervade 
and govern all his conduct. If the business 
w^hich he is pursuing in life requires for its 
success either falsehood or injury to the 
rights of others, and he is called upon either 
to abandon his business or his principles, he 
does not hesitate which to choose; his busi- 



THE FAITH OF ENOCH. 69 

ness may be substituted by another, but his 
principles he can not do without. When he 
witnesses the sinfulness of others, he is 
grieved, because God is dishonored. As the 
friend of God, he has learned to revere his 
character and honor his laws; and every con- 
tempt that is cast upon God and his require- 
ments, he feels far more deeply than if it 
were cast upon himself. 

Thus it is that the believer walks with 
God. The purposes of God are his purposes. 
The laws of God are his laws. After the 
mind of God he is continually striving. To 
know the will of God and to do it, are with 
him one and the same thing. If there is 
any single grief that presses upon his soul 
with greater weight than any other, or than 
all others combined, it is the grief awakened 
by the consciousness that sometimes God is 
not in all his thoughts. If there is any one 
prayer which finds its way to the throne of 
grace more frequently and fervently than 
others, it is. 



70 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

"0 for a closer walk with God^ 

This is the work of faith. This is its evi- 
dence. 

But there is another point yet to be con- 
sidered, and that is: that the views which this 
faith entertains of the character of God^ are 
very different from the views and representa- 
tions of natural religion. " He that cometh 
to God," says the apostle, '^ miist believe 
that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them 
that diligently seek himJ^ 

Now the existence of God is the very first 
truth of natural religion; and it might ap- 
pear, w^ithout reflection, as though the bare 
acknowledgement of the being of the Al- 
mighty were all that evangelical faith com- 
prehends. This, however, would be placing 
the rejecter of revelation on a footing with 
him who bows in submission and reverence 
to all its teachings. If it be possible for 
nature to argue conclusively to the mind that 
there is a first, great and all-creating cause, it 



THE FAITH OF ENOCH. 71 

would be setting aside the necessity of a 
divine revelation altogether; and it would 
render needless the death and rnediationi of 
Christ; for those who refuse to believe the 
gospel, may still admit that there is a God. 

What does Paul mean then, when he* 
fepreseiits faith as consisting in the persua- 
sion of the divine existence? The expres- 
sion is qualified and explained by the tery 
relatioiis in which we find it. He is writing 
to those who are familiar with that peculiar 
manifestation which God has made of him-^ 
self in the scenes of Calvary. He is writing 
to Christians, who, when they hear the men-^ 
tion of God's name, at once associate with 
it that display of his attributes which was 
exhibited in Christ. 

Besides, the last clause of the terse is ^ 
qualification of what precedes it. This God 
on whom Christian faith fixes its regards and 
its hopes, " is a rewarder of them that dili- 
gently seek him." Now we contend that 



72 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

natural religion can present no such view of 
the divine character as this. If it under- 
stood and could represent the character of 
God, as that character is displayed indepen- 
dent of the gospel; with all its teachings, 
it would be unable to discover any way in 
w^hich God might be the rewarder of any 
one of the children of men. 

Suppose that with the idea of the exist- 
ence of God, natural religion were to asso- 
ciate the idea of his justice — of justice as 
God's law represents it: inflexible in its 
nature and uncompromising in its demands; 
what would be the only reward which he 
could expect who had a proper conception 
of that attribute, independent of the provis- 
ions of the gospel? In the world we see 
misery and pain. We see nations destroyed 
for their crimes, and individuals suffering 
the consequences of their guilt. And if nat- 
ural religion is capable of drawing any con- 
clusion from a state of things like this, what 



THE FAITH OF ENOCH. 73 

else can it be than that all this misery only 
foreshadows the endless suffering of man as 
a sinner. 

Suppose natural religion were to furnish 
to the mind a conception of the holiness of 
God. Not viewed through the medium of 
the gospel, this holiness must inevitably pro- 
nounce the sinner's condemnation; for he is 
unholy, and if there is not some plan of 
recovery from the moral pollution of his 
nature, he can have no fellowship with a 
Being in whose sight " the heavens are not 
clean." 

On the principles of simple justice and ho- 
liness therefore, God can not be the rewarder 
of any of our race. Mercy must be com- 
bined with these. But how could mercy 
make satisfaction for the sinner's guilt, and 
eradicate the plague-spots that mark him as 
an outcast from heaven. This question 
brings us right to the gospel. No where 

else can we obtain the answer. No w^here 

7 



74 ILLUSTKATIONS OF FAITH. 

else is the way of finding God as a Being 
ready to forgive, pointed out. 

When therefore the apostle speaks of be- 
lieving that God is, he refers to that exhibi- 
tion of his character and purposes which has 
been set forth in Jesus Christ. He would 
bring the sinner to the cross. He would 
have him concentrate his thoughts upon that 
wonderful manifestation in w^hich mercy and 
truth have met together, and righteousness 
and peace have kissed each other. There 
he would have him catch the spirit of unre- 
served consecration to the will of his divine 
Benefactor. Thus alone can we honor God, 
by resting our hopes upon the Great Sacri- 
fice which on Calvary was offered for sin. 
There is no other way of reconciliation. 
There are no other conditions of peace. 
God in Christ may forgive; God out of 
Christ can only punish. There is no sancti- 
fying power in any faith that stops short of 
this. 



THE FAITH OF ENOCH. 75 

It remains for you to say whether you are 
thus walking with God. It remains for you 
to say whether at the cross of Christ you 
have received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, 
and whether the fruits of your moral reno- 
vation are displayed in the actions of a holy 
and useful life. If you are walking with 
God, your daily repentance and your daily 
prayers, and your attention to all the means 
of grace, together with your progressive 
holiness will be the attestation of your faith. 
If you are walking with God, and if you 
enjoy the bliss of that communion, you will 
not be able to look with unconcern upon 
those who are walking with the world. You 
will labor for their salvation. You will 
endeavor to draw them by the force of your 
own example into the fellowship of the 
saints, and into the household of God. From 
Calvary your eye will take in all the varied 
interests of the human race, and all the 
varied evils that conflict with those interests. 



76 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

You will see the world as he saw it, who 
came to rescue it from the curse of sin. Like 
him, you will go about doing good. Like 
his, your mission will be to scatter blessings 
in your path. 

But remember that the very first purpose 
in which you are to cooperate with God, is 
your own salvation. Until you secure this, 
you can not enter heartily and truly into his 
other plans, or work with him acceptably in 
their prosecution. Some think they are 
commending themselves to the favor of God 
when they contribute their money toward 
the advancement of a kingdom to which 
they do not themselves belong. But this 
can not be; for without faith, it is impossible 
to please him, and the very first act of faith, 
that act without which it can not exist, is 
to seek forgiveness in Christ. Be sure then 
first of all, that you have this faith. If you 
have not found the Savior, diligently seek 
him until you are conscious of the presence 



THE FAITH OF ENOCH, 7/ 

and power of his renovating grace. Then 
all the rest will follow. Thus united to 
Christ, you will feel the power of his con- 
straining love urging you on in the path of 
self-denial. Your work on Earth, will be the 
work of faith. Your reward in Heaven, 
will be the reward of faith. And your 
eternity will be spent in ascribing all the 
praise of your fidelity, and all the glory of 
your salvation unto Him that sitteth on the 
throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever. 



€^t /aitfi 0f Im^, 



THE FAITH OF NOAH. 





N the first epistle of Peter, 
iii, 19, 20, there is a re- 
markable passage, which 
proves the identity of the 
church and the means of 
salvation before and since the flood. In 
that passage we are informed that Christ 
preached by Noah. What was the pre- 
cise message which this " preacher of right- 
eoosness" was appointed to convey to the 
wicked of his geaeration, we are not told; 



82 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

but it must have been the offer of pardon, 
on certain conditions, and one of these con- 
ditions must have been faith in the threat- 
enings and promises of God; threatenings 
based upon human guilt — the violation of a 
law requiring the punishment of the guilty; 
and promises based upon a provision which 
had been made to satisfy the law's demands. 
It is not for us to say how clearly, at that 
time, God's purposes in Christ were revealed. 
But we may suppose that both " the good- 
ness and severity of God" were declared 
with sufficient plainness. The cup of hu- 
man iniquity was full. In the conflict that 
had been going on ever since the fall, be- 
tween irreligion and godliness, between 
infidelity and truth, the former had so far 
prevailed as to leave only a single family 
free from the almost universal contamina- 
tion. But even at this crisis of the world's 
progress in evil, mercy plead for a respite. 
Then followed a period of expostulation, 
which lasted one hundred and twenty years; 



THE FAITH OF NOAH. 83 

during this period, the faith of Noah, and 
the unbelief of the rest of mankind, were 
alike apparent. Noah was saved by faith — 
faith acting in obedience to its own convic- 
tions. Those whom the flood destroyed, 
perished through unbelief. They despised 
the forbearance and long suffering of God, 
until the wrath which they had been treasur- 
ing up, suddenly consumed them. Here 
then, we have a revelation of the gospel 
plan — faith, with corresponding repentance, 
the condition of life; unbelief, with cor- 
responding obduracy, the cause of con- 
demnation. 

We will consider the ground of Noah's 
faith, its influence upon his own conduct, 
and the blessed consequences which resulted 
from it in relation to himself and others. 

I. The ground of Noah's faith, was the 
word of God. He was satisfied that the 
warning he had received of the approach- 
ing judgment was a divine revelation, and 
in compliance with the command which 



o4 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

accompanied the warning, he used the means 
that were appointed for the deliverance of 
himself and his house. He did not venture 
to argue from the past, the improbability 
of the predicted event. He did not stop to 
inquire by what means God would bdng it 
about. He well knew, that what infinite 
wisdom had determined, infinite power could 
perform; and that when God had fixed upon 
an end, the means v^ere always at hand. 

This is in all cases a suflftcient ground 
of faith. God has made a plain revelation 
of his purposes. He has told us of the 
coming wrath, and the way of deliverance. 
He has declared that the elements shall 
melt with fervent heat, and the Heavens — 
the visible firmament — be rolled together 
like a scroll; that there shall be new Heavens 
and a new Earth, wherein dwelleth righteous- 
ness; w^hilst the wicked shall be destroyed 
for ever. It is not for us to inquire how 
God w^ill do all this, but whether he has 
determined to do it. If the truth of the 



THE FAITH OF NOAH. 85 

Bible is supported by incontrovertible proof, 
then faith is concerned with the facts of the 
Bible, whether past or to come, and not 
with the manner of their existence. It i& 
therefore an evident absurdity to reject the 
future facts of divine revelation, because 
they have no precedents, or because our 
finite minds can not discover the means by 
which they are to be realized. 

It is not true, however, that our future 
has nothing like it in the past; that there 
are no bygone events which resemble the 
events that are yet to occur. The gospel 
declares " that there shall come in the last 
days, scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 
and saying, where is the promise of his 
coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, 
all things continue as they were from the be- 
ginning of the creation." (2 Peter, iii, 3, 4.) 
It would not surprise us were we told that 
those who lived before the flood had made 
use of such an argument as this; but that 

any in these last days, with the entire history 
8 



86 ILLUSTilATIGI^^S OF FAITH. 

and experience of the past before them, 
should rest their hopes of evading the divine 
judgments upon such a fallacy, betokens an 
extraordinary hardihood of unbelief. This 
language of defiance is based upon the sup- 
posed uniformity and stability of nature3 but 
the records of the past prove that the assump- 
tion is false, and therefore the argument 
falls to the ground. Nature has not been 
always uniform in her movements. There 
have been wide departures from her accus- 
tomed sameness. The deluge was one inter- 
ruption of nature's uniformity. The special 
agency of God in prolonging the light of 
day, when at the command of Joshua, the 
Sun stood still and the going down of the 
Moon was stayed, was another. And when 
Moses divided the waters of the Red sea, 
and smote the rock in the wilderness, he 
proved that nature's laws are under the con- 
trol of the Being who appointed them, and 
that he alters their usual order or suspends 
their operation whenever it suits his de- 



THE FAITH OF NOAH. 87 

signs. All the miracles of the New Testa- 
ment establish the same fact. The earth- 
quake and the darkness at the crucifixion 
of Christ, and the other phenomena that 
were w^itnessed during his last days on the 
Earth, such as the opening of the graves and 
the revival of the dead, prove that all things 
have not continued invariably the same 
from the beginning of the creation. Here 
then we have the testimony of experience. 
This testimony sustains faith instead of con- 
flicting with it, and settles the fallacy of the 
argument by which the scoffer persuades 
him.self that he may safely disregard the 
threatenings of God. 

If then in the time of Noah, when the 
testimony of experience was, perhaps, less 
decisive, men were required to believe the 
word of God, and w^re punished for their 
anbelief, how now, with their history and 
the history of all generations to prove that 
when God w^arns there is danger? Does any 
one hesitate to believe and obev, because 



88 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

the future is unseen? Let him remember 
that the objects of faith are always invisi- 
ble; for when things are seen, when the 
judgments of God actually descend upon 
the wicked, they become matters of bitter 
experience. And let him learn lessons of 
wisdom from the past. The past is a wise 
teacher, and they are wise who listen to its 
teachings. Every fact which the past fur- 
nishes, is an argument for faith. Every 
calamity that has visited nations or indi- 
viduals, utters the warning, " Except ye 
repent, ye shall all likewise perish." The 
judgments that have been and are, fore- 
shadow the eternal judgments that are yet 
to be. Think of the false security of those 
who perished in the days of Noah. As little 
sign was there then of the approaching des- 
olation as there is to the unbeliever now. 
The current of the world's affairs ran unin- 
terruptedly on. They married and were 
given in marriage, " until the day that Noah 
entered into the ark, and the flood came and 



THE FAITH OF NOAH. 89 

destroyed them all." When the fountains 
of the great deep were broken up and the 
flood-gates of Heaven were opened, were 
they roused from their stupor; but convic- 
tion came too late — the last moment of op- 
portunity had passed away, and the door was 
shut. 

II. The influence of Noah's faith. 

1. Upon his own conduct. " Moved with 
fear, he prepared an ark to the saving of 
his house." 

It was w^hat v/e would call an extraordin- 
ary faith. The whole testimony and prac- 
tice of the world were against it. And as 
year after year rolled by, and the experience 
of the world seemed to deride the faith of the 
patriarch, and the revilings of the wicked 
doubtless became bolder and louder, he con- 
tinued to prosecute with unremitting ac- 
tivity the work on which God had made 
his salvation to depend. And yet, extra- 
ordinary as this faith appears, it was only 

believing God rather than man. 

8* 



90 ILLtTSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

The faith of every one who is rightly in« 
fluenced by the truths of divine revelation, 
is equally extraordinary and equally simple. 
Take the case of the awakened sinner. He 
is moved with fear. The peace which he 
once had is gone. The feeling of security 
which once possessed his soul, has given 
way to uneasiness and alarm. He acts as 
if he were chained to some giant evil which 
he can not shake off— as if he were oppressed 
by an insupportable burden, or chased by 
some terrible apprehension. Once, free from 
care, he glided down the current of earthly 
pleasure. Sin had a charm for him then. 
But the calmness of that scene is broken up. 
There is a mighty struggle within. The 
waves of remorse are swelling over him, the 
sky is dark and lowering; and beset with a 
sense of danger, he is watching eagerly for 
a light which shall guide him into a peace- 
ful haven. The world looks on in amaze- 
ment. It is supposed that imagination has 
usurped the place of reason. The Sun shines 



THE FAITH OF NOAH. 91 

as brightly as ever on the sinner's path. No 
alarming providence has stepped in between 
him and happiness, and yet he is restless 
and concerned. The unbelieving deride his 
anxiety, but can not drive it away. Friends 
try to soothe him in vain. Why this extra- 
ordinary conduct? The whole matter is very 
simple and easily understood, if we remem- 
ber that he believes God rather than man. 
The tranquility which he once had, was not 
founded upon truth — truth received into the 
mind and controlling the life. It was the 
tranquility of unbelief. But now, with an 
eye that others have not, he sees the dark 
cloud and the fierce lightnings of that 
wrath which he is conscious of deserving; 
and with an ear that others have not, he 
hears the voice of a broken law. To him the 
denunciation of that law is a sober and start- 
ling reality. And so is sin. And so is the 
misery which sin begets. And the wonder 
is, not that the sinner who thus believes 
should be roused to action, but that those 



92 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

who credit the testimony of God even in a 
general way, should have so little fear of the 
wrath that will be revealed when the inter- 
positions of grace are withdrawn. 

So every effort that is made for the sal- 
vation of others, is nothing more than the 
expression of the concern which faith a- 
wakens. If the gain of the whole world is 
no compensation for the loss of the soul, we 
can account for it that Jesus wept over 
Jerusalem, and that Paul, moved by a pow- 
erful sympathy, was willing to make the 
largest personal sacrifices, if thereby he 
could secure the salvation of others. How 
do men toil and struggle to acquire earthly 
good! And this the world calls wisdom. 
There can be no extravagance here — no mis- 
placed enthusiasm. Home and friends may be 
deserted, oceans traversed, health sacrificed 
and life itself periled; — the enterprises of 
the world, it is thought, are of sufficient 
importance to warrant any expenditure that 
can be laid out upon them. And why should 



THE FAITH OF XOAH. 93 

not Christian faith labor with still greater 
earnestness to secure its ends? Temporal 
calamities are deprecated, and every pre- 
caution is taken to guard against them. But 
what is the loss of fortune, the downfall of 
nations, the ruiii of cities buried by some 
terrible convulsion of nature, compared with 
the ruin of the soul ! Earthly splendor can 
be revived, earthly palaces can be reared 
again, but the loss of the soul is irreparable. 
Linked to eternity, it must be for ever 
happy or miserable there. And with its 
large capacities, how great will be its ever- 
lasting weal or woe! If faith then is right, 
in the estimate it forms of man's immortal 
nature, no effort of Christian zeal for the 
sinner's conversion can be extravagant. 
There is reason in every tear that is shed 
over the waywardness and unconcern of the 
human heart. There is reason in that agony 
of intercession with which the burdened 
soul sometimes pleads at the throne of grace 
for the Spirit's awakening and renewing 



94 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

presence. If there were but one soul in the 
world to be saved, and the whole church 
were to plead and labor for the salvation of 
that one, the end sought would warrant the 
means employed to secure it. And if the 
church is not moved thus, it is because her 
faith is weak. how do the tears and the 
toils of Jesus put to shame the indifference 
and inactivity of those who profess to have 
the same mind. 

2. Noah's faith was a testimony against 
the world. All the actings of his faith con- 
demned the unbelief of those who were at 
no pains to avoid the impending doom. For 
the}'' had the same reason to credit the 
threatenings of God, which influenced his 
decisions, and governed his conduct. We 
may suppose that in this respect, they were 
v/ithout excuse. If God did not communi- 
cate his intention immediately to them, it is 
probable that Noah laid his credentials be- 
fore tiiem, and either by the working of 
miracles or in some other way, gave such 



THE FAITH OF NOAH. 95 

proof of his divine appointment, as ought 
to have satisfied their minds. 

So the faith of every one who is induced 
to yield to God on the terms of the gospel, 
is a condemnation of the world's unbelief. 
Is the awakened sinner filled with fear? That 
very f^ar condemns the security and false 
confidence of the impenitent around him; 
for they have the same gospel, the same 
arguments, the same representations, "both 
of their own characters, and the conse- 
quences in the future world that must inevi- 
tably arise out of their continued rebellion 
against God, and their persevering rejection 
of the overtures of divine mercy. They 
have listened, perhaps, to the same sermons 
that have persuaded others, and through 
which the divine Spirit has operated savingly 
upon other hearts. 

And here we meet the question: Is the 
sinner responsible for his unbelief? We 
take the ground that he is. We take the 
ground that faith in those representations 



96 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

which constrain some to yield to God, is the 
duty of all — that the same application of 
the mind to the great truths of the Bible, 
will conduct in one case to the same results 
as in another. The Bible is not defective 
either in the evidence by which its own 
authority is supported, or in that by which 
it convicts the sinner of sin. The nature 
of this evidence is referred to by our Saviour 
when he says: " Light is come into the 
world." Who asks for labored proof that 
the Sun exists? So the truth of the word 
of God is seen and felt It is such a re 
vealer of the thoughts and intents of the 
heart; it places in such a strong and self- 
evident light, what every one knows or may 
know to be the peculiarities of his own 
moral nature, that with an unbiased mind, 
and with a determination to yield to evidence, 
he can not help being persuaded that it is a 
revelation from God. If he is kept away 
from the investigation because he hates the 
light, or if the love of evil causes him to 



THE FArrH OF NOAH. 97 

reject the evidence, this is a fault of the will, 
for which the sinner is clearly responsible. 
If any fail to discern the appropriateness 
of the gospel remedy to their wants, or if 
they fail to discern the wants that have 
made that remedy indispensable, it must be 
because they shut their eyes. Nor is this 
mere assertion. The proof is found in the 
influence of revealed truth upon the great 
majority of minds. Even those who have 
not submitted to its power, are for the most 
part convinced of its reality. This is the 
case with almost every stated hearer of the 
gospel, who has not surrendered himself to 
its influence. The fault is found to be in 
the will. Duty is confessed, but not per- 
formed. 

Whoever looks into this subject, will find 
that to be persuaded of the truth of the 
Bible, does not require labored investiga- 
tion, — the labor devolves upon those who 
attempt to deny its truth. Unbelief has a 
hard task to perform, and it is becoming 



98 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

more difficult every day. With the powei' 
of truth illustrated by so many examples, 
with the Spirit of truth working upon so 
many hearts, and with the history of the 
entire past as a witness for what God has 
declared in his word, it is hard to deny, but 
easy to believe. We say then, the concern 
of every awakened sinner reproves the false 
confidence of all who have not been roused 
by the same considerations that have moved 
him. 

Thus,also, every believer by the obedience 
of faith condemns the disobedience of un- 
belief. The same reasons are given for 
obedience in the one case as in the other, and 
the same help is extended. If the believer 
has been prevailed upon to love God and to 
secure an interest in Christ, by motives 
drawn from the divine word, others ought 
to be influenced in the same way by the 
same motives. If any imagine that on the 
last day they will plead their inability, as a 
reason for their disobedience,let them remem- 



THE FAITH OF NOAH. 99 

b^r that the compliance of many who lived, 
when they lived on the Earth, who heard the 
same statements of duty and the same argu- 
ments for its performance, wall bear testimony 
against them. The plea of human inability 
is taken away by the provisions of divine 
grace. The gospel is the power of God. 
Its light is intended for every mind, its re- 
newing influence is offered to all; and if any 
do not live the life of faith in the Son of 
God, it is because they will not come to 
him. Disobedience is something more than 
the passive submission of the soul to the 
power of evil; it is the resistance of what 
is good. The convictions of duty are sup- 
pressed. The efforts of the Spirit are re- 
pelled. Of those who do not love and obey 
it maybe said: "Ye do always resist the 
Holy Ghost." And who is responsible for 
that corrupt bias of the will, which, by a 
most determined and active opposition, de-. 
feats every agency which infinite compassion 
employs to bring the sinner back to the path 



100 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

of duty? Every one therefore who has sur- 
rendered his heart to God, is a witness 
against those who refuse that submission. 
The godly life of every follower of Christ 
is a testimony against every neglecter and 
violator of his commands. 

It is worthy of remark here, that a holy 
example is the most powerful of all the re- 
bukes that impiety can receive. Sin may 
be denounced in words, and yet encouraged in 
the actions of those who thus reprove it. But 
thus if the inconsistency is discovered, the sin- 
ner who observes it will never be convinced of 
sin by admonitions, however pointed and 
truthful, that are not enforced by example. 
Purity of life is an important instrumentality 
in the renovation of the world. And he 
who carries his religion with him every 
where, and exemplifies its reality and its 
power in every action, is enforcing the duty 
of others by unanswerable arguments — argu- 
ments that can be seen and felt, and which 
w^ll be sure to be appreciated. 



THE FAITH OF NOAH. 101 

But it must not be forgotten that all are 
responsible for their own actions even when 
extreme wickedness prevails, and though 
corruption should predominate, as it has in 
the church itself. Men may be saved under 
these circumstances. They may be righteous, 
as Noah was in that generation* Some 
pretend to justify their impenitence, on the 
ground of the inconsistency of others, who 
profess to love God. But this is one of the 
subterfuges of the great adversary of souls. 
This is one of the refuges of lies, in which 
he would persuade the sinner to hide him- 
self. 

3. The consequences of Noah's belief in 
his relation to God. " He became heir of 
the righteousness which is by faith.'' 

And how is the soul to be justified now? 

By the righteousness of faith — faith in the 

great sacrifice which has been offered for 

sin. " He that believeth on the Son, hath 

everlasting life; and he that believeth not 

the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of 
9* 



102 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

God abideth on him.'' Christ is the ark, 
and every sinner that would be saved, must 
take refuge in him. The storm is gathering, 
but that ark will ride securely amid the 
raging of the elements of wrath, and though 
the waves may swell and beat around, and 
the lightnings flash above, they will not be 
able to hurt those who have taken shelter 
here. They are members of the body of 
Christ, and if the head is safe, the members 
will be safe. Washed in the blood of the 
Lamb, the justice of God will have no 
claim to present, that has not been settled, 
the holiness of God will find no impediment 
that has not been removed. 

And this is the only expedient. A Jew- 
ish writer represents Noah expostulating 
from the ark with those who were excluded. 
They thought they would be safe because 
they had adopted other means. This was 
their plea. But Noah reminds them that 
no other method of salvation had been ap- 
pointed by God, and as they had neglected 



THE FAITH OF NOAH. 103 

and despised that, they deserved to perish. 
To many, the gospel refuge may appear as 
incompetent to human salvation, as did the 
provisions of the ark to those unbelievers. 
They may imagine there are other methods 
equally good or better. With Naaman they 
may say: "Are not the rivers of Damascus 
better than all the waters of Israel?'^ But 
let such remember, that God has appointed 
but one expedient. He will not parley with 
men on a subject like this. Nor can they 
escape if they neglect so great salvation. 



t /ait[r of lhra[iatn> 



THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM. 



" By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go 
out into a place which he should after receive for 
an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not 
knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned 
in the land of promise, as in a strange country, 
dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and JaCob, the 
heirs with him of the same promise : for he looked 
for a city which hath foundations, whose builder 
and maker is God. By faith, Abraham, when he 
was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had re- 
ceived the promises offered up his only begotten 
son, of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy 
seed be called : accounting that God was able to 
raise him up, even from the dead." Hebrews, 
XI. 8-10, 17-19. 

Sf^^^BRAHAM was the founder of the 
W^ Jewish nation: the representative 
of the church and people of the 
true God. Other believers there were 
before, and even during his time, for 
we read of Melchizedec the priest of the 




108 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

Most High God, who blessed the patriarch, 
and whose priesthood Abraham acknowl- 
edged by giving to him tithes of all the 
spoils taken from the kings who had impris- 
oned the family of Lot. Nevertheless God 
selected Abraham as the individual through 
whom the promise of the Deliverer was to 
be transmitted to future generations, and 
through whom the Deliverer himself was to 
come. With Abraham the covenant was 
sealed by the rite of circumcision, which 
was appointed as the sign and the assurance 
of the gracious purposes of divine mercy. It 
is interesting to notice the manner in which 
that covenant was ratified. Abraham w^as 
directed to take " an heifer of three years 
old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a 
ram of three years old, and a turtle dove, 
and a young pigeon." Having done this, a 
deep sleep fell upon the patriarch, and God 
made to him a full discovery of his purposes 
in regard to himself and his seed, the slavery 
and sufferings of his posterity, their deliver* 



THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM* 109 

ance and settlement in the land of Canaan. 
And as the sign that all these purposes would 
be fulfilled, " it came to pass, that when the 
sun went down, and it w^as dark, behold a 
smoking furnace and a burning lamp that 
passed belw^een those pieces.'^ This w^as 
the testimony of divine approbation, the 
pledge that all which God had promised 
would be performed. This significant pro- 
ceeding reveals the ground on which all the 
promises of God to the sinner rest. There 
can be no agreement without sacrifice; 
without the shedding of blood there can be 
no remission of sins. A truth so impres- 
sively set forth — a truth so often reiterated — 
a truth that was perpetually represented in 
the sacrifices of that economy which was 
afterwards introduced through Moses — a 
truth repeated as often as the bread is bro- 
ken, and as often as the wine is poured out 
in the Lord's supper, must hold a prominent 
place in the wonderful scheme of human res- 
toration. It constitutes indeed — as from the 
10 



i 110 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

intimations referred to we might suppose it 
would constitute— the leading feature of the 
gospel. That gospel is but an exhibition of 
Christ and him crucified. This is the bur- 
den of all its revelations^ this is the founda- 
tion of all its promises. Thus it behooved 
Christ to suffer: this was the condition on 
which the success of his enterprise depended; 
and to rise from the dead the third day. 
The death and resurrection of Christ consti- 
tuted him the way of approach to God: 
they opened a door of hope, a channel of 
negotiation: so that repentance and remis- 
sion of sins might be preached among all 
nations. 

Abraham was also the representative of 
Christ's spiritual seed. These were to be 
multiplied as the stars of Heaven. Christ 
refers to the distinction between the natural 
and spiritual seed of Abraham, in the case 
o£the Roman centurion: " Verily I say unto 
you, I have not found so great faith, no, not 
in Israel. And I say unto you, that many 



THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM. Ill 

shall come from the east and west, and shall 
sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob 
in the kingdom of Heaven; but the children 
of the kingdom (that is, many of the natural 
seed) shall be cast out into outer darkness: 
there shall be weeping and gnashing of 
teeth." The Saviour alludes again to the 
same distinction in a conversation with some 
of the Jews, who urged, as an objection 
against his doctrine: "We be Abraham's 
seed, and were never in bondage to any man; 
how sayest thou then, ye shall be made 
free." To which Jesus answered: " Whoso- 
ever committeth sin, is the servant of sin. 
If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do 
the works of Abraham." And Paul makes 
the same distinction, representing all the 
true followers of Christ as the children of 
Abraham, when he writes to the Galatians: 
" If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's 
seed, and heirs according to the promise." 

Thus specially chosen as a type of all 
future believers, we have reason, in his case, 



112 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

to look for extraordinary illustrations of faith. 
Aijd these we find. 

1. He became an exile from home at the 
command of God. " He went out, not know- 
ing whether he went.'' He was probably 
ignorant of the resources of the country, he 
knew not the trials that would meet him 
there. He had no reason to suppose that 
the change, so far as his own worldly pros- 
pects were concerned, would be for the bet- 
ter. The promise of God reijprred to the 
future. The land of Canaan was to be the 
inheritance of his posterity. In all this, 
Abraham acted without any thought of pre- 
sent advantage, or expectation of personal 
gain. We must suppose also, that if he had 
the ordinary sensibilities of human nature, 
there were strong ties and powerful associa- 
tions which bound him to the land of his 
birth. These had to be severed. And 
whilst the promise of God referred chiefly 
to the posterity of Abraham, he was plainly 
told that they w^ould suffer all the afflictions 



THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM. 113 

and wrongs of slavery for four hundred years 
before the iniquity of their oppressors would 
be full. To have acted thus w^ith reference 
to the future, without any prospect of per- 
sonal advantage, and with the certainty of a 
long delay before any permanent advantage 
would be secured to his posterity, must have 
required a strong faith. Many become vo- 
luntary exiles now, but it is w^ith a view to 
immediate and personal gain. The indivi- 
dual who leaves his home to amass wealth, 
is persuaded in his own mind that the chances 
of prosperity are in his favor. With him it 
is a business calculation. The severence of 
home ties and old associations, is a part of 
the investment from which he expects to 
derive profits that will abundantly remune- 
rate him for all the sacrifices he makes. 
Perhaps he expects to return after a few 
years, and enjoy among former associates 
and familiar scenes, the hard-earned fruits 
of his enterprise. Could he be assured that 

the sacrifice he is making: would bring; no 
10* ^ ^ 



114 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

immediate returns — that even his children 
would derive no benefit from it — that at 
most it would be of advantage only to his 
distant posterity after a lapse of centuries^ 
there is no man of the world in his sober 
senses, who would be stimulated in the path 
of worldly enterprise by an object so far off". 
If there is any undertaking that deserves to 
be ranked with that of the Patriarch, it is 
the undertaking of the missionary of our own 
times, who consecrates himself to his work 
without knowing whither he is to go. He 
may be sent where disease will be almost 
sure to meet him. He may be sent where 
the untamed dispositions of savage men will 
place his life in constant jeopardy. Surely 
the change in his case does not promise any 
personal advantage. There is nothing in the 
-missionary work to excite cupidity. Beyond 
the supply of his daily wants, the missionary 
receives no pecuniary recompense. Talents 
that might obtain wealth .at .home if devoted 
to some worldly calling, ara employed abroad 



THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM* 115 

•without any expectation of wealth — nay, 
with the certainty of many privations — and 
employed too with a diligence that could not 
be quickened by the largest and surest pro- 
spects of worldly gain. For what does the 
missionary labor? Not for himself, but for 
others : not always with the certainty, or 
even the probability of present results. He 
may have to toil for years amid many dis- 
couragements, and may not live to see any 
of the fruits of his eiforts. His enterprise, 
like that of Abraham, is connected with 
human civilization and progress; with the 
deliverance of the soul from the captivity 
and punishment of sin. His hopes depend 
upon the sure promise of God. His is em- 
phatically a work of faith; of faith deriving 
its encouragBments from the Bible, and from 
the manifest energy that resides in the prin- 
ciples of the Bible. He goes forth to take 
possession of the world in the name of Jesus, 
to plant the church and establish the worship 
of the living God. The world needs men of 



116 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

this character; men of strong faith and ele- 
vated piety, to take the lead in the coloniza- 
tion of remote territories. There are men 
enough who are attracted to these territories 
by the love of gain; who go as mere ad- 
venturers, impelled by the sole desire of per- 
sonal aggrandizement, and often without any 
scruples as to the means by which that object 
is gained. There are indeed honorable ex- 
ceptions. But how few, animated by the 
faith of the Patriarch, and having the same 
enlarged and disinterested views of duty, go 
for the single purpose of scattering the bless- 
ings of civilization and Christianity. The 
missionary enterprise ought to be regarded 
with favor by all nominally christian govern- 
ments. The distant territories of this go- 
vernment need something more than standing 
armies to protect their inhabitants from law- 
less violence. They w^ant the gospel. They 
want the institutions of the gospel. And if 
they have them not; if infidelity and irreli- 
gion are allowed to go hand in b»nd with 



THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM. 117 

emigration, and to be planted and grow and 
spread their influence, every increase of ter- 
ritory will only augment the difficulties of 
legislation, and add to the expenses of the 
country by demanding the support of hired 
soldiers to prevent the outbreaks of insubor- 
dination; and will at the same time endanger 
our political institutions by increasing the 
w^eight of empire, while there will not be a 
proportionate increase of moral powder to 
sustain it. Standing armies can never civilize 
the world. They are apt to be more prolific 
of evil than of good. They are more likely 
to sow the seeds of vice, than to give en- 
couragement and protection to virtue. The 
christian family is the most pow^erful instru- 
ment of civilization ; and every christian 
home that is planted in distant colonies, is a 
warrant for the progress and the permanency 
of the interests of these colonies. 

2. Again, Abraham followed entirely the 
leadings of Divine Providence, and thus gave 
another illustration of his faith. He did not 



118 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

complain of his lot He did not venture to 
question the wisdom of God in commanding 
him to dwell in a strange land, without any 
fixed abode. Why ? Because he beliered 
this arrangement to be part of a plan whose 
results were to stretch into future and eternal 
ages. He looked for a city which hath 
foundations. He looked for consequences of 
infinite value to himself, and of infinite im- 
portance to the world. This was the support 
of his faith; the promise of God that his 
fidelity would be rewarded, and that it w^ould 
be fruitful of unspeakable blessings to all 
coming generations. Having this promise, 
he was w^illing to labor in any sphere to 
which the providence of God might call him; 
he w^as w^illing to suffer any privation which 
the wisdom of God might appoint. It mat- 
tered not to him whether his station was high 
or low, so long as he had the assurance that 
his instrumentality would be honored and 
recompensed. 

In this respect should every believer imi- 



THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM. 119 

tate this eminent example. He should not 
aspire to a higher place than it is evidently 
the will of God he should occupy, nor covet 
a lower with few^er responsibilities. All who 
have a vigorous faith will labor diligently in 
the sphere to which the providence of God 
has called them. If the individual who 
possesses such a faith is required to make 
sacrifices, he will do it cheerfully in view of 
the " great recompense of reward." If per- 
secution meets him, he will be supported by 
the assurance : " Blessed are they that are 
persecuted for righteousness' sake." If his 
lot is cast in a heathen land, he will obey the 
summons, though it separates him from home 
and friends, looking forward to the inter- 
course of heaven. If he has wealth, he will 
lay it down at the Cross. If his position in 
the world is humble, he will labor wdth no 
less confidence of important results, knowing 
that the influence of the most obscure believer 
is a link in the grand chain of influence 
which in the end is to bind the world to God. 



120 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

Many betray the weakness of their faith by 
their attempts to get rid of duty. How often 
do w^e see those w^ho profess to believe^ un- 
willing to go where God would lead them. 
How sadly have the interests of the Church 
suffered for want of self-denial in its mem- 
bers. What faith demands, is entire con- 
secration. What faith demands is that you 
should go wherever duty calls ; that you 
should do whatever duty requires. You are 
to study the indications of Providence. Every 
where are you to perform the work of faith: 
in the family, in the Sunday school, in the 
church, in the world, in every department of 
usefulness to w^hich you have access. If such 
a faith were in all its members, the church 
would be resistless, and the world would soon 
be converted to Christ. 

3. The faith of Abraham staggered not, 
though all outward appearances were against 
it. When a hundred years old, he was yet 
childless, and still he believed the promise: 
^^A father of many nations have I made thee." 



THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM. 121 

(Gen. xvii, 5.) But the oiFering of Isaac 
was the crowning exhibition of his faith* 
At last the child of promise was born ; and 
the Patriarch trained him up for the high 
purpose to which he was called. But after 
a few years, during which the growing piety 
of Isaac strengthened the hope which his 
birth had created, the command came: " Take 
now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom 
thou lovest, and get thee into the land of 
Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt of- 
fering." No sooner was the command given, 
than it was obeyed. No doubt crossed the 
Patriarch's mind. No despondency took pos- 
session of his soul. With a firm reliance 
upon the faithfulness of Him whose wisdom 
had appointed this new trial, he was ready 
to make the sacrifice, " accounting that God 
was able to raise him up, even from the 
dead.'' We are not to suppose that God 
gave to Abraham any intimation of his pur- 
pose to countermand the order. Abraham's 

confidence rested upon the original promise. 
11 



122 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

He felt assured that this could not fail, and 
he was but little concerned about the man- 
ner of its accomplishment. 

Too often is the believer disheartened by 
the dijSiculties that impede the progress of 
the gospel. He seems almost to imagine 
that God has forgotten his promise, or that 
unforeseen chances of defeat have arisen, 
which were not reckoned when the promise 
was given. The example of faith we are 
now contemplating, is intended to rebuke this 
want of confidence in the wisdom and power 
of the Almighty — that wisdom which fore- 
sees all contingencies, and that power which 
is able to meet them. He who has fixed 
upon the plan of this world's recovery, is 
both wonderful in counsel and mighty in 
working. No unforseen event — no event for 
which he has not fully provided, can come 
between his cherished purposes and their 
accomplishment. Even when appearances 
are against his designs, all things, not ex- 
cepting those which seem to be most un- 



THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM. 123 

favorable, are working together for the ad- 
vancement of these designs. Of this the 
death of the Son of God was a striking and 
illustrious proof With a faith less strong 
than that of Abraham, the disciples of the 
Lord were filled with dismay at this event, 
whilst the very cause of their disquietude 
w^as the only ground of human hope and sal- 
vation. Faith, when properly exercised, 
believes that all things are possible with 
God. No cloud of fear crosses its vision. 
It sees the end just as clearly as if it were 
already here. 

The apprehensions of the believer often 
arise from his inactivity. Abraham not only 
believed, but obeyed; and w^hilst his faith 
produced obedience, it was his obedience 
undoubtedly that imparted strength to his 
faith. He knew that God's purpose would 
be accomplished, but he knew also that God 
works by means, and he looked for results 
only in the faithful use of the instrumentali- 
ties which God had appointed. It is no 



124 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

wonder that the faith of believers should 
stagger, when their own hearts are cold, and 
they are doing nothing for Christ. They 
may well tremble for the growth and pros- 
perity of the chmxh, if they are doing no- 
thing to build it up. They may well trem- 
ble for the souls of the unconverted, if they 
are not lifting a hand to save them. Let 
Christians remember that the only way to 
secure a strong faith, is to render an active 
obedience to every requirement of duty. If 
you would have strong confidence in the con- 
verting power of the gospel, labor to bring 
others under its influence. If you would 
have strong faith as a parent — if you would 
believe that the conversion of your children 
is possible — labor for their conversion. If 
you would have strong faith as a member 
of the church, and if you would entertain 
the constant expectation of its enlargement, 
then labor for its prosperity. If your 
faith is weak, it must be because your 
obedience is not earnest. Remember that 



THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM. 126 

God has given you a work to do — each one 
of you, and that the degree of your faith in 
his promises depends upon the degree of 
diligence with which you execute his com- 
mands. 

There are three other weighty lessons en- 
forced by this example. 

1. The heavenly, like the earthly Canaan, 
is a gift. " Eternal life is the gift of God 
through Jesus Christ our Lord.'^ 

It was God's promise that encouraged 
Abraham to take up his residence in a strange 
country. Had the right of occupation de- 
pended upon a price at his hand, he would 
have despaired of the purchase. Had it de- 
pended upon his efforts, or the efforts of his 
posterity to establish this right, either by 
conquest or negociation, in all probability 
he would never have thought of the enter- 
prise; but it was the sure promise of God 
that nerved him for the course of action he 
pursued. 

The doctrine of free grace is sometimes 



126 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

charged as the source of idleness; but It is 
the only doctrine that can rouse man to proper 
action as a moral being, and call forth his 
efforts for his own salvation and the salvation 
of others, because it is the only doctrine that 
administers the hope of success. Tell the 
sinner that he must purchase heaven; and if 
he knows himself, he will despair of ever 
obtaining a place in the kingdom of God. 
But tell him it is a gift to be bestowed on 
certain conditions with which, by the grace 
of God, he may comply, and you open at 
once the door of hope; you encourage ac- 
tivity in the race set before him. Let an 
individual feel that he owes a debt which he 
can never pay, and that after all his exertions 
the law will still hang over him with its 
demands, and it will be likely to arrest all 
his efforts; he will not make an attempt that 
must be utterly useless. But let some ge- 
nerous friend cancel the obligation and set 
him free from the law's demands, and all the 
energy of his character is at once revived. 



THE FAITH OF ABRAHA:\L 127 

Such is the influence of the doctrine of free 
grace upon the mind of the enlightened sin- 
ner. Under the law, justification is hopeless; 
and why should he attempt what he can not 
accomplish ? The law discourages effort, 
because no amount or kind of effort which 
the sinner is able to make can satisfy the 
demands of the law against him. But the 
doctrine of free grace nerves him to action, 
because it opens the prospect and holds out 
the promise of success. He who would not 
venture to do, may venture to believe. He 
who felt the paralyzing presence of despair 
in his soul when commanded to render perfect 
obedience to a law which condemned all his 
actions and all his thoughts, and which can 
not relinquish a single one of its claims, now 
feels the invigorating presence of hope sti- 
mulating him to action, when he sees a de- 
liverer whose interference has been approved 
of by the law, pointing to a new and living 
way, and proffering all the help that the 
sinner requires to enable him to walk therein. 



128 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAtTH. 

Say not that the doctrine of free grace en- 
courages inactivity. The struggles of the 
awakened soul to break the fetters that bind 
it to earth and sin; all the exercises of the 
believer's mind, and all the actions of his 
renev^ed life; the diligence with which he 
prosecutes the business of his salvation, and 
his ceaseless endeavors to make his calling 
and election sure^ bear a different testimony. 
The doctrine that inspires hope, is the doc* 
trine that impels to action. 

The doctrine of free grace operates Ihus 
beneficially also in constraining the believer 
to put forth his efforts for the salvation of 
others. This doctrine has founded the church 
in the world, and is the source of all its 
benevolent operations. And why does the 
church labor for the world? Because it 
believes that the happiness and salvation of 
man fall in with the purpose of the grace of 
God. Look at what christian faith has done; 
at the beneficial changes it has wrought, and 
is working now. Think of what the world 



THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM. 129 

has been without it, and of what it is at this 
moment, wherever the agency of this faith is 
not laboring for the improvement of the race. 
How disinterested and universal is its bene- 
volence ! It brings relief to the poor. It 
carries joy to the disconsolate. It lights the 
torch of truth in the midst of the darkness of 
heathenism. Through the instrumentality of 
the Reformers, it effected a revolution which 
gave the warrant of liberty to Europe and 
the world. It has always been the advocate 
of human rights, and the promoter of human 
happiness. And what is it doing now? It 
is sending forth missionaries and bibles and 
tracts to civilize and evangelize the nations. 
So far from giving encouragement to in- 
activity, the doctrine of free grace is the only 
doctrine that can constrain any one to act for 
the good of others, because it is the only 
doctrine that utters the sure promise of suc- 
cess. The gospel is all free grace; and the 
gospel alone can bless and save the world. 
2. Faith is a practical principle. Be- 



130 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

lieving as he did, there was nothing extra- 
ordinary in the conduct of Abraham. The 
motives presented to his mind were sufficient 
to justify its decisions, and to warrant the 
course of action he pursued. 

Faith operates just so in the enterprises of 
this world. A man will risk his fortune or 
his life, if he believes, even with some mis- 
givings, that he will gain an advantage 
which will repay him for all his present 
hazard and toil. Were it not for this per- 
suasion, what would be more amazing, what 
would be more unaccountable than the con- 
duct of the adventurer who leaves his home, 
or the conduct of the speculator who invests 
all he is worth in a single speculation? Both 
these individuals believe thattheir plans will 
succeed, and bring in a harvest which will 
abundantly repay them for all their outlay of 
comfort and money. 

The conduct of the believer is not wonder- 
ful, if we take into account the objects of his 
faith. It is only wonderful that men can 



THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM. 131 

believe the Bible even in a loose and general 
sense, whilst their faith exerts so little in- 
fluence on their principles and actions. We 
can account for it that Abraham should leave 
his country and sojourn in a strange land, 
while looking " for a city which hath foun- 
dations, whose maker and builder is God;" 
but it is difficult to explain how men can 
credit the great truths of revelation, and yet 
bow to the flesh and remain impenitent. It 
is difficult to explain how the believer can, 
in any measure or under any circumstances, 
shrink from responsibility, while the work 
and the reward are set plainly before him. 
In this view of the case, the believer is 
saved by works; not without faith, but as the 
superstructure which has faith for its founda- 
tion. Abraham's works are thus represented: 
" Was not Abraham our father justified by 
works, when he had offered Isaac his son 
upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought 
with his works, and by works was faith made 
perfect? Ye see then how that by works 



132 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

a man is justified, and not by faith only'' 
(James ii: 21, 22, 24). Paul, viewing the 
matter from a different point of observation, 
uses very different language: " For if Abra- 
ham were justified by works," says he, " he 
hath w^hereof to glory" (Rom. iv: 2). Still 
these two apostles mean the same thing. 
Paul's argument was intended to correct the 
views of those v»^ho held to legal justification; 
the argument of James was intended to point 
out the error of those who were satisfied with 
a lifeless and inoperative faith, a faith of the 
head and not of the heart. There is danger 
of leaning to the one or to the other extreme, 
and both extremes are to be carefully avoided. 
No one can be saved by works without faith, 
neither can any one be saved by faith with- 
out works. Works without faith w^ould be 
a rejection of the offers of the gospel, while 
faith without works would be a denial of the 
obligations of the law. Both the law and 
the gospel must be supported, and the faith 
that saves the soul must bow to the authority 



THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM. 133 

of both. The law is unchangeable; and the 
gospel throughout is a solemn and impressive 
sanction of the everlasting principles of the 
law. One part of this sanction is set forth 
in that requirement of the gospel: " Ye must 
be born again." Another part of this sanc- 
tion is contained in all the precepts of Christ 
and his apostles, and also in the purity of 
their lives, their self-denial, the large sacri- 
fices they made for the good of others, and 
their constant reference in all their actions to 
the will of God. In the epistle to the Ro- 
mans, where the doctrine of justification by 
faith is discussed at large, Paul presses at the 
close the great duties of life; showing that 
the faith for which he contended, and to 
which he owed his own hopes, constrains 
those who are actuated by it to follow after 
holiness. And Christ says that whosoever 
gives to a disciple, as a disciple, a cup of 
cold water, shall not lose his reward. And 
again we are told. He that giveth to the 

poor, lendeth to the Lord. And the rich in 
12 



134 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

this world are charged to do good, to be rich 
in good works, ready to distribute, willing to 
commiinicate; laying up in store for them- 
selves a good foundation against the time to 
come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. 

There is a recompense then for those 
services that aie done for Christ; always 
bearing in mind that his blood renders them 
available by atoning for their defectiveness, 
and that they necessarily grow out of faith in 
him — faith producing love, and love stimu- 
lating to acts of gratitude. 

We do not wrong in the least the doctrine 
of free grace, by the estimate we thus form 
of good works; for it is grace that renders 
them possible. It is grace that makes them 
acceptable. It ^vas grace that gave to Abra- 
ham the promise. It was grace that pro- 
duced and confirmed the belief of its fulfil- 
ment. It was grace that imparted that 
powerful conception of future good, which 
fitted him for every measure of present sa- 
crifice. It was grace that implanted in his 



THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM. 135 

soul that trust in God, which conducted him 
safely and triumphantly through all the ex- 
traordinary trials to which his faith was 
subjected. And if the believer now exer- 
cises a self denial equally illustrious, he has 
no honor, he has no praise separate from the 
grace that has formed within him the dispo- 
sition to do the whole will of God. 

Christianity is a sanctifying as well as a 
justifying scheme. The same faith that fills 
the soul with hope, inspires it with love — 
the love of holiness, the love of that Being 
who is infinitely holy and just, and the love 
of that law which is the expression of these 
attributes of the divine nature. Justifica- 
tion and sanctification, faith and love, trust 
and obedience are inseparable in the plan 
of reconciliation; and if we attempt to 
separate them in our estimate of Christian- 
ity, we frame for ourselves a defective sys- 
tem which can never save the sinner. A 
lifeless faith, which leaves the soul full of 
worldliness, is as great and fatal an error, as a 



136 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

sole reliance upon works. This is the great 
lesson to be learned, thatfaith without works 
is dead, being alone; and that works with- 
out faith are equally dead, being alone. 

3. The offering of Isaac was typical of 
the sacrifice that has been made for sin. 

Trace the resemblance. Isaac was, in one 
sense, an only son. He w^as well beloved. 
He was offered by his own father. He was 
to die for no offense of his own. In this 
transaction, it is supposed Abraham saw the 
day of Christ, and was glad. When he re- 
ceived Isaac back from the dead, in a figure, 
as Paul expresses it, he had probably a 
prophetic glimpse of the death and resurrec- 
tion of the Son of God. He saw, perhaps, 
w^ith prophetic vision, the dying and the 
rising Saviour. He saw, it may be, the 
power of that death, and the power of that 
resurrection working out mighty changes in 
the world, planting the church, and attract- 
ing sinners every where to God. We can 
readily perceive how it was that Paul de- 



THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM. l37 

termined not to know any thing among men, 
save Christ and him crucified. How could 
he preach the gospel, and not preach Christ? 
How could he glory in the gospel, and not 
glory in the cross of Christ? What truth 
is of more importance to us as sinners; 
what truth is clothed with greater interest, 
than the truth that Christ died to save us? 
Look for a moment at the transaction which 
the offering of Isaac prefigured. Behold the 
fulfilment of this symbolic representation in 
the crucifixion of the Lamb of God. Isaac 
was spared the agony of a sudden bereave- 
ment, but God spared not his own Son. 

" O Lamb of God, was ever grief, was ever 
love like thine ?" 

The history of the universe, so far as we 
are acquainted with it, presents no similar 
example. Justice claims satisfaction for 
human guilt; and God has found a ransom. 
Believe, and you are safe. Reject him who 
died to save you, and your own soul must 
suflfer the inflictions of that wrath which 



138 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

abideth for ever. Seek then until you 
find — if you have not already found — that 
faith which will lead you to Christ as your 
refuge and your example; that faith which 
will purify your own heart first, and then go 
forth to save others; that faith which will 
make you feel that you are not your own, 
and which will constitute your influence or 
part of the great aggregate of influence by 
which the world is one day to be brought un- 
der the dominion of Christ, for such a 
faith here and every where; then would the 
righteousness oi Zion go forth as brightness, 
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that 
burneth. 



Piilnm for m. 



PATTERNS FOR US. 




Hebrews, xiii, 7. "Whose faith follow " 

j^E have abundant reason to be 
thankful for those holy examples 
with which the history of the 
^ church abounds. These examples are 
to be found in every age. Never has 
the religion of the Bible been without a 
witness of its regenerating power. Even 
when the standard of piety has been at the 
lowest, there have been individuals whose 
lives have afforded practical illustration of 
the purity of those principles which lie at 
the foundation of God's requirements, and 
which are set forth in the doctrines of the 
gospel. And when we come to particular 
ages of the church, how extraordinary are 
the displays of all that is lovely in character. 



142 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

of all that is attractive in moral excellence, 
of all that is disinterested in human action. 
Take the age when Paul wrote, and when 
the apostles labored for the cause of truth. 
Consider the sacrifices they made, and the 
cheerfulness with which they made them. 
And consider the holiness of their lives, 
and how far they rose in this respect above 
the common level of the age. How large 
was their benevolence ! How self sacrificing 
their zeal! How triumphantly they soared 
above the influence of every selfish motive, 
whilst, with the heroic spirit of their Mas- 
ter, they were ready to give up all that they 
possessed, for the general welfare, and 
counted not even their lives dear, if by 
such a sacrifice they might win souls to 
Christ, and advance the great interests of 
his kingdom among men ! Now these ex- 
amples, and all others like them, show that 
the rule of the gospel is not impracticable. 
They show that the self denial which the 
gospel requires may be exercised; that the 



PATTERN'S FOPw US. 143 

holiness which it commends, may be at- 
tained. 

Without such illustrations of the influ- 
ence of religion upon the hearts and lives 
of others, we might well doubt whether we 
could ever arrive at what Christianity re- 
quires us to feel and to perform. We are 
told that we must love the Lord our God 
with all the heart; but when we consider 
how wide a breach sin has made between 
the soul and its Maker, we ask, perhaps, is 
it possible to entertain this supreme love 
for the Almighty? Is it possible to be 
guided by heavenly, instead of earthly mo- 
tives and rules of conduct? These questions 
are answered in the holy lives, and disinte- 
rested purposes, and heavenly aflfections of 
those who have lived by the faith of the 
Son of God. We see men like ourselves, 
having the same infirmities, exposed to the 
same temptations, beset by the same enemies 
within and without, reclaimed from the 
error of their ways, and brought back to the 



144 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

path of obedience. We see them gaining 
one conquest after another over sin — we see 
them advancing in the path of holiness and 
self denial, until sin appears to have nearly- 
lost its power, and self is absorbed in a 
supreme regard for the will of God and the 
well-being of humanity. Now when we wit- 
ness these examples, we are not merely to 
wonder. We are not to satisfy ourselves with 
admiring the strength of the principle to 
which others have yielded, and the excellence 
and beneficial effects of the piety which they 
exemplified before the world. But we are to 
yield to the same principles; we are to 
cherish the same love to God which anima- 
ted them, and we are to labor as they la- 
bored for the progress of truth and right- 
eousness in the earth. " Whose faith follow: 
considering the end of their conversation.'' 

This is a command to the church, and to 
every individual belonging to the church. 

In this passage we are directed to most 
eminent examples of holiness and zeal, as 



PATTERNS FOR US. 145 

patterns for our imitation, and also to the 
source of the power which will enable us to 
copy after their lives. 

We are not required in this passage, you 
will observe, to exercise an implicit trust in 
the opinions of those, who, whilst they pro- 
fess to be spiritual guides, are themselves 
blind leaders of the blind. The church has 
sometimes put itself in opposition to the 
word of God, teaching the traditions of 
men instead of the doctrines of that word. 
The faith of the church has not always been 
the faith of the Bible. And yet, whilst 
there existed this disagreement between the 
teachings of the one and the revelations of 
the other, men were told that they must 
receive the church's interpretation, and not 
presume to question its correctness, although 
they might be persuaded in their own minds 
of its being at variance with the plain sense 
of the word of God. It was so in the time 
of Christ, when the Scribes and the Phar- 
isees put the ceremonial above the moral 
13 



146 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

law, and when they so explained the re- 
quirements of the latter, as to open the 
door for the violation of its most important 
precepts. And it has been so since. But 
in all questions of faith, the Bible is to be 
our guide; and in all differences of opinion, 
or disputes concerning that faith, the Bible 
is to be the ultimate and only acknowledged 
standard of appeal. No set of men calling 
themselves the church, have any right to 
step between my understanding and the 
plain doctrines of revealed truth, as a me- 
dium of interpretation, claiming authority 
from on high for such interference, and 
requiring my unqualified assent to their 
expositions of scripture doctrine. God holds 
every one responsible for his own belief, 
and therefore he addresses the truth to every 
individual mind, and addresses it so plainly, 
that the sinner who is honestly and earnestly 
seeking the way of life, or the believer 
who wishes to determine any case of con- 
science, or any question of duty, needs no 



PATTERNS FOR US. 147 

other interpretation than that which the 
spirit vouchsafes to the earnest and prayer- 
ful reading of the word of God. True, 
ministers are appointed to instruct others, 
but ministers and their teachings are to be 
tried by the standard of eternal truth. To 
this even the Saviour appealed. He re- 
quired men to believe his sayings, because 
they agreed with what God had already 
revealed. " Search the scriptures/' said he, 
" for in them ye think ye have eternal life, 
and they are they which testify of me.'' 
There is nothing therefore in the gospel, to 
encourage or sanction a blind adherence to 
the opinions of others. We are to prove 
all things, and hold fast that which is good. 
We are to adopt no man's faith as our own, 
except so far as it agrees with the law and 
the testimony of God. 

Neither do the words we are considering, 
authorize us to imitate the failings that 
are more or less mingled with all Christian 
excellence. The patriarchs and prophets and 



148 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

apostles were not perfect men. They had 
their faults, but these faults did not belong 
to their faith, but rather proved that their 
faith was not as powerful and as constant in 
its influence over them as it should have 
been. Now there are those who appear to 
think that when the Bible holds up the ex- 
amples of holy men for our imitation, it com- 
mends their deficiencies as well as their 
virtues; and the persons who entertain this 
opinion are almost sure to copy the flaws 
which they discover, and refer to these as 
an apology for their own sins. Defects are 
to be found in all examples. And they 
serve an important purpose. They teach us 
that the most holy men have had to wrestle 
with the same temptations that beset us, 
and to contend with the same moral cor- 
ruption to which we are subject. But 
these defects are no warrant for our deficien- 
cies. If Jacob supplanted his brother, and 
obtained his father's blessing by means of 
fraud, this certainly does not legalize false- 



PATTERNS FOR US, 149 

hood, or make it right, on any occasion^ to 
deceive. This was the fruit of his unbelief, 
and had nothing to do with his faith. And 
if Peter denied his Master, it was because, 
at that moment, his faith was w^eak. What- 
ever is wrong in these examples, we are to 
avoid; whatever is right, is intended to sti- 
mulate our faith and to elevate our piety. 

This passage holds out no encouragement 
to the lukewarm professor of religion, or to 
that member of the church who lives in the 
constant neglect of duty. They have no 
right to rely upon the short-comings of 
others as an excuse for their transgressions. 
And yet how many pursue this course. 
How many imagine that because David 
sinned, they may safely pass by his vir- 
tues, and imitate his faults; that because 
holy men have had their imperfections, 
they may follow their violations of duty 
without aspiring to their holiness. Said 
Paul in his letter to the members of the 

church at Cori^ih, " Be ye followers of me, 
13^ 



150 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

even as I also am of Christ." There was 
an ultimate moral standard to which he 
referred, one beyond and above himself by 
which he wished his own faithfulness to be 
tried — the perfect pattern of Christ. 

What then are we to follow in these ex- 
amples? We are to imitate the fervor of 
their piety. We find that there was earnest- 
ness in their religion. It was a flame that 
burned perpetually and brightly in the soul, 
with some intermissions it is true, but not 
subject to that frequent and almost utter ex- 
tinction which we too often witness among 
those who bear the name of Jesus and pro- 
fess to have his spirit. If we would learn 
what was the nature of David's faith, let us 
listen to the expression of that faith. We 
find that it led him to perform faithfully the 
duty of prayer. Morning, noon, and night 
did he call upon the name of the Lord, 
under a sense of his frequently returning 
wants. Sin was ever nigh, and every mo- 
ment did he feel the need of divine help. 



PATTERNS FOR US. 151 

And mark the earnestness of his petitions: 
" Unto thee will I cry, Lord, my rock: be 
not silent to me; lest if thou be silent to me, 
I become like them that go down into the 
pit. Hear the voice of my supplications, 
when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my 
hands towards thy holy oracle. Draw me 
not away with the wicked, and with the 
workers of iniquity." There is none of the 
sluggishness of indifference, none of the 
coldness of formality here. We feel that 
we are in the presence of a man who loved 
to hold communion with his God. There is 
a beseeching importunity, and often an 
agony of intercession which bespeaks the 
intense desire of the heart. What fervor 
of devotion breathes in every song of praise, 
what a lifting of the soul to Heaven ! David 
was sometimes in darkness, but he could not 
remain content, as many do, whilst the 
countenance of God was turned away from 
him. If he had grieved the Spirit, he gave 
himself no rest until by humiliation and re- 



152 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

pentance he had brought him back again 
to his disquieted soul. 

Go into that upper room in the city of 
Jerusalem, where Peter, and James, and 
John, and other disciples abode, and what 
scene do we witness? " These all continued 
with one accord in prayer and supplication, 
with the women, and Mary the mother of 
Jesus, and with his brethren." This was 
an earnest faith, a fervid piety. They re- 
membered the promise of Christ, " that 
whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my 
name, he may give it you;" and they were 
resolved to secure for themselves and the 
world, whatever was consolatory and what- 
ever was valuable in this promise. And 
how, suppose ye, did the early Christians act 
in view of that command, rendered more 
solemn and subduing if not more impera- 
tive by the circumstances under which it 
was delivered? " This do in remembrance 
of me." The same record informs us that 
" they continued stedfastly in the apostles' 



PATTERNS FOR US. 153 

doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of 
bread, and in prayers." They did not at- 
tempt to evade the duty imposed by a divine 
ordinance. Why should they? "With a fer- 
vid love for Christ, it was a privilege, not 
a hardship to meet him at his table. And 
sympathizing as they did with those who 
loved the same Saviour, and were pledged 
to the same interests, they delighted in the 
communion of the saints. In the fervor of 
their devotion, therefore, in the intensity of 
their affection for Christ and his ordinances, 
should we follow^ the believers w^ho have 
gone before us. 

But we should also imitate their fidelity 
in promoting the interests of the race. The 
patriarchs, prophets, and apostles were evi- 
dently under the impression that they had 
been raised up for a special object, and they 
acted in view of that object. If they were 
not men of the w'orld, they were men for 
the world — the very men the world needed 
at the precise crisis when each one was ap- 



154 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

pointed to fulful his mission. Trace the 
career of Moses the Jewish lawgiver, and 
mark how well he acted his part, and how 
important was the part he acted. What 
might have been the result upon the world's 
progress, had he been faithless to his trust? 
But he rose, by divine grace, above the 
power of the most extraordinary tempta- 
tions, and kept his eye intently fixed upon 
the single end which he had been sent to 
accomplish, the deliverence of a nation from 
political and moral bondage. 

Now there is always a crisis in the 
world's affairs, which calls for action; and 
there is always an important part w^hich 
every believer may, and ought to perform, 
towards the world's deliverance. Every be- 
liever is raised up for a special object, and 
that object is indicated by his position in 
life, by the amount of his wealth or influ- 
ence, or other opportunities of doing good 
unto others. Let the circle of his influence 
be ever so circumscribed, if there is but one 



PATTERNS FOR US. 155 

soul among the millions that inhabit the 
earth upon which he can act beneficially, 
his mission is to act upon that one. Some 
are appointed to fill a large sphere, like the 
prophets, the apostles, or the reformers; 
others are appointed to occupy a sphere of 
duty and influence more limited; the true 
wisdom is, for each one to be sure that he 
fulfils his course, whatever it may be. Had 
Moses lived in comparative obscurity, his 
faithfulness would have been illustrated 
there. Had John, the forerunner of Christ, 
occupied any lov/er position than the one 
he so honorably filled, the stern integrity 
of his faith w^ould have been visible there. 
And had Paul moved in the most limited 
sphere of usefulness, his zeal would have 
found objects on which to act for the glory 
of God and the salvation of men. What 
every believer wants, is, the fidelity oi these 
devoted servants of Christ; having this, it 
will not fail to find opportunities for its 
manifestation. Were there more of the 



156 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

spirit of their faith in the churches, there 
would be more of its fruits. It is not be- 
cause Christians do not occupy exahed sta- 
tions, that so little is done for the world 
and the souls of men, but, because there is 
a lack of fidelity in the places which God 
has assigned them. 

Follow then the faith of the prophets and 
apostles, in their active devotion to the 
interests of mankind. Did God call them 
to perform a great work, so has he called 
you. I need not attempt to describe the 
work of the believer: this would be impos- 
sible; but you can judge what it is, as God 
lays it before you in the opportunities of 
every day and every moment. At one time 
it may be to reprove sin; at another, to in- 
struct the ignorant; at another, to encourage 
the desponding; at another, to confirm the 
wavering. The duty of one day, may be 
to aid in sending the gospel to the heathen; 
the duty of another, to promote its exten- 
sion at home. In every duty, think how the 



PATTERNS FOR US. 157 

prophets and apostles would have done, and 
follow the actings of their faith. You have 
no right to be less devoted to the cause of 
truth and the welfare of men. That cause 
has lost none of its importance, and the soul 
has lost none of its value, by the lapse of 
time. 

We are encouraged to hope and labor for 
the highest attainments in holiness. There 
is no good reason why we should not be as 
holy as the best of men. If we are not, 
the fault rests with ourselves, and the cause 
is to be found in our neglect of the means. 
The prophets and apostles w^ere but sinful 
men, with as little natural claim to holiness 
as other men possess; and it was the grace 
of God which made them what they after- 
wards became. That same grace is offered 
to each one of us: we may be favored with its 
highest manifestations; we have only to 
ask, and we shall receive; we have only to 
cultivate the gracious affections bestowed 

upon the soul in conversion, and they will 
14 



158 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

be enlarged, and elevated, and puriified more 
and more. The great difficulty with many, 
is, they are satisfied with low attainments 
in holiness: they do not, like Paul, press on 
toward the mark: they loiter by the way; 
they sit dow^n in the race; they think that be- 
cause they have outstripped others, they are 
holy enough. But surely, they w^ho thus 
think, and thus act, are not obeying the 
injunction of the apostle. 

Were those righteous men, whose exam- 
ples w^e are commanded to imitate, ever 
satisfied with their spiritual progress? Hear 
David: " As the hart panteth after the 
water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, 
God." Hear Paul: "Forgetting those 
things which are behind, and reaching forth 
unto those things which are before." So 
strong were their desires after more holiness, 
that all their past attainments deserved, in 
their eyes, only to be forgotten; there was 
always a returning thirst which former sup- 
plies could not satisfy. If w^e would follow 



PATTERNS FOR US. 159 

their faith, we must emulate their holiness; 
like them, we must set the highest of all 
examples before us, and strive to be pure, 
even as the Son of God was pure. 

We are encouraged to hope and labor 
for great results, as the fruit of our instru- 
mentality. What may not Christian faith, 
even now, accomplish. If the prophets 
and apostles and reformers effected much, 
we are to remember that they were but in- 
struments in the hands of a higher powder, and 
that that same power may give extraordinary 
success to our agency. Many do not labor 
at all, because they doubt their own effi- 
ciency, and think they can do nothing; but 
they forget '^that the race is not to the 
swift, nor the battle to the strong." It is 
" the right hand of the Lord, and his holy 
arm that have gotten him the victory.'^ 
Holy men of old undertook great things, 
because they knew the Lord was working. 
Let the church recognize this agency, and 
act accordingly, and who will undertake to 
designate the limits of her power. May 



160 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. 

not the Spirit of the Lord be called down 
every where^ by her prayers; and may not 
sinners be converted every where, by her 
fidelity? Let the church's faith be strong, 
and her agency for good must be wide and 
powerful. 

There are voices urging us to greater 
faithfulness; the voices of every age. And 
there is one voice, that we should heed 
above all others. It is the voice of him 
w^ho died for the world. If w^e are his 
followers, let us strive for more of his 
Spirit, that we may labor as he labored for 
the prosperity of Zion, and the deliverance 
of those who are now under the dominion 
of sin. When the whole church, as one 
man, shall plead with the earnestness and 
importunity of that faith w^hich will not be 
denied, and labour with the determination 
and perseverance of that faith which will 
not be defeated, then the time to favor 
Zion will speedily come, and the whole 
Earth will see the salvation of God. 



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